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Here's where you'll find all the latest news about technology for children. We love to follow cool new inventions on Kickstarter and we hunt out all the latest announcements about tech toys and gadgets for the coming Christmas holidays. You'll also get our take on children's technology stories in the media.

REVIEWS$show=/search/label/review

Our kids technology product reviews are intended to help you work out whether a toy, gadget or kit is a good fit for your child or family. There's lots of cool stuff available, but is it the right choice for the child or teenager that you are buying for? We'll help you make the right choices and get the best value for money.

GIFT GUIDES$show=/search/label/gift%20guide

Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, and friends assemble. We create gift lists to help you make good choices for kids technology which helps them develop the right skills for the future. We research the best in Coding Toys and Games, Making / Craft Tools and Kits, STEM/STEAM related gifts, Programmable Robots, Electronics Kits and Gadgets for Tech Age Kids and Teens.

PROJECTS$show=/search/label/project

Get crafty with technology. Here we'll post all our ideas and projects using technology to get creative and making with kids. You'll find anything from making a lemon battery to a glow-in-the-dark Minecraft sword. Our projects are tried and tested on our own kids or at events we run, so we are sure you can have a go at home with your kids. Some of our projects use specific tech gadgets which we provide links for you to purchase.

STEM$show=/search/label/stem

STEM stands for Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. In recent years there is an increased focus in these areas of study. We like to include Art and Design too, so we often talk about STEAM (A stands for Art). At Tech Age Kids we believe Coding is a new literacy and children need to understand how technology works, practice making skills and grow in their curiosity to make a better future for us all.

CODING$show=/search/label/coding

Coding is increasingly being recognised as an important skill for children to learn. Some will learn to code at school or at a coding club, but it's brilliant if they get support at home too.

ELECTRONICS$show=/search/label/electronics

We think it's really important for kids to get hands-on with electronics and learn how to make circuits and write code to control hardware. Younger kids can start with conductive playdough. For kids who like to combine craft and tech, littleBits are fab. And we love SAM Labs wireless electronics components for making it easy for kids to make Internet of Things inventions. Lots of electronics kits for kids have support for the Arduino microprocessor environment. The DuinoKit Jr is one of our favourites. Arduino is a fab skill for older kids and teens to develop.

ROBOTICS$show=/search/label/robotics

We love robots at Tech Age Kids, especially programmable ones. We've got lots of them and write reviews and projects that use them. Our programmable robots for kids buying guide is a good place to start if you're not sure what's available. Roby the mBot Meccano robot dog is one of our popular projects and has been with us to lots of events. Our Ozobot LEGO trailer is fab for kids who love LEGO and robots.

MAKING AND CRAFT$show=/search/label/making

We're advocates of the creative use of technology, but this needs to be balanced with developing physical skills such as papercraft, woodwork, clay modelling, technical drawing and soldering. If children don't develop these skills as they grow up then physical making projects can become frustrating rather than fun. The Maker Community uses the term 'making' as a broad term to include all sorts of artisan skills or craft activities. Being able to make things can lead to life-long hobbies or even careers. It's a great feeling to be able to take a project from an idea in your head to a real object that does something. We're particularly interested to explore products that combine maker skills with tech skills such as electronics but others focus purely on the physical making skills that are still important to modern making.

Project: Launch Easter Eggs with Dash Robot


Dash and Dot make learning about science and coding fun and offer robot games for young kids. The Launcher is a great accessory for Dash, with fun play and learning factors.

With spring in the air (for the northern hemisphere), we've given these cute robots an Easter make over and explored launching Easter Eggs with Dash's Launcher. We've used both Dash and Dot, an Amazon Fire tablet, the Dash Launcher accessory and the Blockly and Wonder app.


Also See: Dash & Dot Review | Using Amazon Fire with Dash & Dot

Easter Bonnets for Dash & Dot

My boys have been preparing their Easter Bonnets for the Easter Spring Parade at school. They wanted to make a bonnet for Dash. In the Accessories Pack there are some bunny ears and a bunny tail. We attached the bunny ears to Dot and twisted fluffy giant yellow pipe cleaners around them.


Dash's Easter Bonnet

We used packing cardboard and an empty plastic container to make the basic shape of the bonnet for Dash. My 5 year old them used a variety of Eastery bits and pieces to decorate the bonnet. The Building Brick connectors, which come with Dash, came in handy as we attached the bonnet to the connectors using pipe cleaners.

Dot and Dash are ready for their Easter Parade.



Playing with the Launcher

The Launcher accessory used with Dash is lots of fun. It is a particular favourite robot game in our house.

In fact, a couple days ago, my youngest wanted to show off a remote control car he got for his birthday. It wasn't a particularly good one, and needed an enormous amount of batteries to run. Low and behold the dreaded car didn't want to drive. I suggested he use Dash instead. His 3 year old friend was enchanted by Dash. The two little kids, managed to connect the robot and drive Dash around using the Wonder App, like a remote control car. But it's much cooler as you can change sounds and lights too. Plus, no batteries required!

They soon attached the Launcher and where catapulting balls all over the kitchen floor. The fantastic thing about the Launcher is you can operate it using the remote control feature in the Wonder app, or you can add it into your code using the Blockly app.


Easter Egg Toss Game


As the boys were playing their robot game with the Launcher, they got an idea to try toss other things. We tested a few things and discovered, whatever you toss, needs to be fairly light. We had some polystyrene Easter eggs, intended for the Easter bonnets, and so the Easter Egg Toss game was born.


Firstly they launched the eggs using the Wonder app. You simply attach the Launcher to Dash and it launches the item at full power. It turned into a rather fun game, as one son drove Dash around launching Easter Eggs and the other danced around with an Easter tin, trying to catch them. Points was rewarded for every catch.

My 7 year old wanted to investigate more, so we turned to the Blockly app and coded with the Launcher.

Programme an Easter Egg Toss Game


Using the Blockly App, we made a simple programme for Dash to toss the Easter eggs. In the Blockly app you can code Dash to launch the ball (this only works with the balls provided) and you can code the power of the launch in a percentage.

We had to work out the power of the throw and adjust the power of the lever action on the Launcher. As we were not using the balls, we couldn't use the automatic launch function. Instead we designed a method for Dash to know the next egg is ready to be tossed.

QUICK FACT: What is a lever machine?
A lever is a stiff rod that rests on a support or hinged point called a fulcrum, which lifts or moves a load. (In Dash's case catapults it!)

The Blockly App works much in the same way as Scratch, a drag and drop programming platform. You drag the blocks you need to perform the actions you want the robot to take.

My son made a neat little programme, which gave him time to place the egg in the launcher and depending on which button he pressed on top of Dash, the robot would turn slightly and toss the egg. He worked out, by trial and error, where the Eater buckets had to be placed in order to catch the eggs.



Here's his code:



Changing the Weight of the Egg


Next we investigated if changing the weight of the Easter Egg made a difference. It did! We used simple plastic Easter eggs - one with nothing in, one with one ball of cotton wool and a third with stuffed full of cotton wool.

When we kept the power the same, the eggs landed at different lengths from Dash. We tried to adjust the power of the launch to get all the eggs to land on a similar place. Unfortunately, although our thinking was bang on, our plastic Easter eggs where a bit big for the launcher and so we didn't get as a good a result as we'd hoped for. If you plan to try this at home, try getting smaller plastic eggs.

Here's the simple code he used in the Blockly app.


Our Verdict

At Tech Age Kids, we love connected robots. Dash is a super cute robot, with a number of cool features, for a wide age range. We'd definitely recommend Dash as a first robot (and as a replacement for annoying remote control toys that never work). We really enjoyed playing our robot game with the Launcher and it's one of the accessories that provide instant play fun but can also be great for learning. Even our family dog, Ruby, is a fan of the Launcher. Although we are yet to find a ball we're happy for her to catch. The Blockly App does have it's limitations for more complex projects, but as a starter Robot kit Tech Age Kids highly recommend Wonder Workshop's cute robots, Dash and Dot.


24 days of Scratch coding book cover and cute penguin
Name

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Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children: Project: Launch Easter Eggs with Dash Robot
Project: Launch Easter Eggs with Dash Robot
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Tech Age Kids | Technology for Children
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