Robotics for kids
In the last 21 years of the 21st century (pun intended), science and technology have made great progress in almost every part of our daily life. We’ve never experienced such a tempo. One area that has also been influenced by its progress is education. The result is increasingly higher requirements from employers towards potential candidates. Also, schools and universities implement more and more courses related to the development of skills in accordance with the STEAM philosophy (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, Mathematics) into their curricula.
In addition to an appropriately planned teaching program and the competence of teachers and lecturers, for teaching to be effective, it is also necessary to provide appropriate tools for this purpose. This article introduces amazing educational robots designed to learn programming and robotics from an early age.
Dash & Dot
Dash and Dot are a pair of “robot friends”. Dash is larger, has wheels and a moving head, while the Dot is his smaller robot brother – both are equipped with a set of sensors. Dash & Dot are designed to interact with what students choose to put in their environment. Various types of sensors can detect specific objects. Dash and Dot robots can recognize when they are moving and also react to sounds. Students at different levels of learning control Dash and Dot robots to perform simple activities such as singing or dancing. Depending on the age of the students and difficulty level, you can choose from several applications available to control Dash and Dot characters. Blockly and Wonder software will enable students aged 7+ to program robots and learn the basics of coding.
Ozobot Bit
Write a code…by simply drawing! Ozobot Bit is another interesting robot, which is an example of an amazing toy that provides lots of fun and gives the ability for skill development in programming and logical thinking. Ozobot can be programmed to move around the room or to perform more complex activities such as playing games or dancing. This robot can be taught up to several hundred different movements to recreate custom dances or tasks using music. By drawing colorful patterns, Ozobot can be programmed to react to different colors with different reactions. The sensor on the bottom of Ozobot allows him to follow the pattern of drawn lines. Students can use the included software to do basic coding that teaches Ozobot new activities.
This fun-oriented approach helps children assimilate deductive reasoning, learn the basics of robot programming, and develop art sensitivity. What’s more, Ozobot is not only educational robots, but also numerous accessories supporting learning programming. These accessories include coding boards, markers for drawing the robot’s route, and puzzles to help understand the process of crafting the program code. Thanks to this, Ozobot is a comprehensive ecosystem that supports the development and creativity of children not only in the field of programming and robotics, but also as part of other educational activities.
Mime MeArm
MeArm is one of the many compelling pieces of evidence that learning and fun go hand in hand in an interesting way with good results. By assembling and observing the MeArm movements, we have the opportunity to learn the basic aspects of mechanics and machine construction – its structure from the point of view of classical mechanics has four degrees of freedom. Due to the possibility of the robot arm working with platforms such as Arduino, Raspberry Pi or BBC micro: bit.
MeArm is a very good solution as an introductory tool for learning programming, including observing the effects of the hardware layer depending on the program code on the basis of which control of the robot arm is realized. As you develop basic robot programming skills, you will be able to design applications on MeArm in languages such as JavaScript, Python or Snap! The MeArm robot also allows children to learn the basics of geometry and programmable drawing of images.
