AgentSheets
| Company type | Software |
|---|---|
| Industry | Educational software, Programming language |
| Founded | 1996 |
| Headquarters | United States |
| Products | AgentSheets programming language and environment |
AgentSheets is a programming language based on block structures specifically created for young learners. It utilizes drag-and-drop elements such as conditions and actions presented as editable blocks to build software.
At the heart of AgentSheets are interactive entities known as "agents," which are programmed using sets of rules. These agents detect user interactions through conditions, including speech recognition and content from websites, while their actions enable movement, sound generation, webpage launching, and formula calculations.
History
The initial prototype of AgentSheets was developed in 1989 and operated at the University of Colorado at Boulder, NCAR, and on the Connection Machine 2. By 1991, functionalities like a train following tracks were implemented using before/after rule structures—demonstrating an early form of programming by example.
AgentSheets became commercially available in 1996 with funding from the National Science Foundation. This version broadened interaction capabilities, such as incorporating speech recognition on Mac platforms, improved scientific visualization with features like real-time 3D plotting, and introduced support for Japanese and Greek languages. The release of AgentSheets 3 occurred in 2010.
The platform promotes Scalable Game Design aligned with the International Society for Technology in Education’s National Educational Technology Standards (NETS). Through the NSF ITEST initiative, more than 900 students per school participate annually; over half are female students, with 85% expressing enjoyment in the course and 78% showing interest in pursuing further studies in game design.
Design
AgentSheets features an integrated drag-and-drop programming environment tailored for learners. Resembling a spreadsheet layout, an AgentSheet consists of a computational grid filled with numbers, strings, and "agents"—interactive objects controlled by rules. These agents appear as images that can be animated, respond to mouse and keyboard events, access web content, and on Mac systems, include capabilities for speech recognition and synthesis.
See also
- Web-based simulation (WBS)
- Scratch (block-based programming language)