I spend a pretty good amount of time teaching kids how to code, and one of THE BIGGEST things is giving them something that seems like more than just an exercise. Robots are totally perfect for this.
With super simple commands like "go forwards" and "go backwards", they can get the bot to do what they want really quickly. It is definitely the "ah ha!" moment of programming.
I've taught kids as young as 5 enough that they could make that thing drive to their brother, turn around, and come back to them.
Hands down some of my favorite moments working with kids have been watching them debug their way through writing a sketch to make the robot solve a maze.
The big problem with this bot, though, is that it's $70 + and arduino ($20ish). For a lot of parents, a $90 investment into something is a bit scary, especially for lower income kids, which really hurts :( (If I could I'd give every single kid I met a shieldbot and an arduino, and it sucks knowing that only the rich kids are getting them).
This thing being $10, not apparently requiring an additional board, or cables, or anything is just...freaking awesome. If this thing becomes widely available, it would call it a game changer for at least the things that I'm doing. If I can buy 9 of these for what was previously the cost of 1 sheildbot, that is a HUGE win (especially for lower income kids).
Totally totally awesome!
Rubenstein says that for the bot’s next iteration, the group is focusing on improving the curriculum and the software, eliminating steps in the installation process and ensuring AERobot is so simple that kids can learn how to use the thing on their own—without a teacher.
AH! No, screw that! Figure out how to mass-manufacture these things. Let the huge community of software hackers who are looking for stuff like this figure out how to develop pretty IDEs around it!
I agree, this looks awesome. I teach young kids how to code using LOGO (there is a great series of books on it) because it is very simple with easy to understand terms. Pen up, pen down, move, etc. So great.
So what is involved with making a large number of these things? They have the design available. Is it just a matter of giving a board manufacturing company the design and a truckload of money and they will send you 1,000-1,000,000 boards(depending on size of truck)?
Cheers for your comment! That robot looks very cool, I'm tempted to get one now, to teach a family member. I think theres something really nice about seeing a program run on something physical like a robot.
Comments
This really is absolutely fantastic.
I spend a pretty good amount of time teaching kids how to code, and one of THE BIGGEST things is giving them something that seems like more than just an exercise. Robots are totally perfect for this.
I help with a program in Phoenix called Mach1 labs (a hackerspace inside of a library), and there we have a bunch of these: http://www.seeedstudio.com/depot/Backorder-Shield-Bot-p-1380...
So far, this has been far and away the best thing I have found for getting kids interested in programming.
I usually start them with this sketch: https://github.com/blhack/shieldbot/blob/master/shieldbot_st...
With super simple commands like "go forwards" and "go backwards", they can get the bot to do what they want really quickly. It is definitely the "ah ha!" moment of programming.
I've taught kids as young as 5 enough that they could make that thing drive to their brother, turn around, and come back to them.
Hands down some of my favorite moments working with kids have been watching them debug their way through writing a sketch to make the robot solve a maze.
The big problem with this bot, though, is that it's $70 + and arduino ($20ish). For a lot of parents, a $90 investment into something is a bit scary, especially for lower income kids, which really hurts :( (If I could I'd give every single kid I met a shieldbot and an arduino, and it sucks knowing that only the rich kids are getting them).
This thing being $10, not apparently requiring an additional board, or cables, or anything is just...freaking awesome. If this thing becomes widely available, it would call it a game changer for at least the things that I'm doing. If I can buy 9 of these for what was previously the cost of 1 sheildbot, that is a HUGE win (especially for lower income kids).
Totally totally awesome!
AH! No, screw that! Figure out how to mass-manufacture these things. Let the huge community of software hackers who are looking for stuff like this figure out how to develop pretty IDEs around it!
I agree, this looks awesome. I teach young kids how to code using LOGO (there is a great series of books on it) because it is very simple with easy to understand terms. Pen up, pen down, move, etc. So great.
So what is involved with making a large number of these things? They have the design available. Is it just a matter of giving a board manufacturing company the design and a truckload of money and they will send you 1,000-1,000,000 boards(depending on size of truck)?
Toy companies specialize in making cheap plastic things with a little bit of electronics functionality, and making the money back on volume.
Cheers for your comment! That robot looks very cool, I'm tempted to get one now, to teach a family member. I think theres something really nice about seeing a program run on something physical like a robot.