Today's Google Doodle is designed to teach kids how to code

Be it Veterans Day, Saint Patrick's Day, Thanksgiving or Halloween—each Google Doodle, the bespoke images and videos that head the popular search engine throughout the year, comes with a message. Today's celebrates 50 years of children's programming language with an interactive, six-leveled quest designed to teach kids coding. 

'Coding for Carrots' marks Google's first-ever coding doodle, and lets players guide a bunny around six progressively challenging levels collecting carrots. Players must select each movement in turn, dropping directions in-line before playing in sequence. Later stages introduce loops, while players receive in-game medals for ascertaining the shortest solution for each puzzle.

"Today, during Computer Science Education Week, we celebrate 50 years since kids programming languages were first introduced to the world with a very special creation (and furry friend): our first ever coding Google Doodle," so reads this post. "Today’s Doodle was developed through the close teamwork of not one or two but THREE teams: the Google Doodle team, Google Blockly team, and researchers from MIT Scratch."

The post continues to include words from Champika Fernando, Scratch Team's director of communications, who explores the evolution of children's programming languages from the '80s through to present day. Read that in full over here.   

Whatever your age, Coding for Carrots is good fun—check it out on today's Google homepage.