Top Brands: Sphero - Wonder Workshop - Makeblock - Amazon Kids
BLACK FRIDAY: Amazon Fire Kids Pro 10"
BLACK FRIDAY: Amazon Fire Kids Pro 10"
NEWS$show=/search/label/news
Here's where you'll find all the latest news about technology for children. We love to follow cool new inventions on Kickstarter and we hunt out all the latest announcements about tech toys and gadgets for the coming Christmas holidays. You'll also get our take on children's technology stories in the media.
REVIEWS$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.
KIBO Robot is a learning tool created by KinderLab Robotics, following years of research by Marina Bers and her team. The programmable robot is designed for 4-7-year-olds and promotes learning to code and computational thinking through play and experimentation.
We’ve had the privilege of a hands-on review of KIBO Robot and write about our experience in this post.
Disclaimer: KinderLab Robotics provided us with the KIBO 21 Robot Kit for this review only. As always our opinions are our own.
First Impressions
When I first opened the KIBO box, I didn’t think the robot looked very attractive. It’s a mustardy yellow colour made from plastic and wood and compared to other robots we’ve review on Tech Age Kids, it looked “old-fashioned”. BUT with the KIBO robot, we looked passed this initial impression and found a really robust learning tool for young kids.
Unlike other robots (except for Cubetto) KIBO doesn’t require a tablet or computer to operate it. This is appealing for parents and teacher worried about children getting to much screen time. It also reduces the barrier to use it, as you don't require another expensive device to run the robot.
I was not entirely convinced by the way you had to program the robot (more on this later) but we were willing to dig deeper and explore more.
The attachments are fantastic. They are visual and practical and provide a lot of opportunity for creative play.
As I’ve read Coding as a Playground by Marina Bers before reviewing KIBO, I understood that KIBO was developed as a learning tool and not a “pretty” robot. Taking that into account, it’s very versatile and has lots of scope for learning.
So let’s look at what’s in the kit and how it works. I reviewed KIBO with my 7-year old son.
What’s in the Kit?
The KIBO 21 Robot Kit comes with a plastic box for easy storage. The contents include a number of sensors (light, distance and sound), a light output, sound recorder, motors, various accessories for attachments and wooden coding blocks.
Everything fits neatly in the box which makes playing and tidying up much easier and young kids can do it!
There are also other kits available at different price points. The smallest kit is the KIBO 10 Robot Kit, which doesn't include any of the sensors and inputs. Modules, accessories and programming blocks are all sold separately on the KIBO website.
The Robot
KIBO comes partly assembled and has a wooden top and clear plastic bottom. The wood makes the robot feel more tactile for young children. You can see all the circuitry through the clear underneath plastic, providing lots of opportunity for discussions and learning.
You need to add two motors and the wheels, as well as 4 AA batteries.
There’s one triangular button on the top, an indicator light and a scanning device at the front of the robot.
All the Attachments
The attachments are very visual and my son immediately noticed that the sound sensor was shaped like an ear and the distance sensor like a telescope. It's really clever!
There’s also LEGO compatible attachments (which are our favourite colour - purple) and a central motor on top of the robot which allows you to spin some of the attachments. My son particularly liked the flagpole with the whiteboard flag which can also spin, if it’s attached to the motor.
Also included are rectangular and round wooden stages to build craft on and then attach to the robot.
One of my son’s favourite attachments was the sound record/playback module. It allows you to record a short message (a few seconds) by holding down the button on the recorder. There are three slots for recordings. Later you can playback your recording using code.
This is very similar to the Electro Mat Voice Recorder which we’ve used in lots of projects when my son was younger.
There are slots for 4 different attachments on the robot, and a central slot for a motor or stage support to attach the flagpole or stage attachments.
Coding & Craft
We believe it's very important for children to continue to make things with craft materials and construction toys. These activities help to develop creative thinking, which is an essential skill for modern children. In fact we feel so strongly about it, we wrote a project book for the micro:bit to help develop coding and craft skills for slightly older children.
However in this age category (4-7-year-olds) children still enjoying making and crafting. With very little input, I have found, children will naturally create.
KIBO is an open platform that encourages creativity with craft and coding. It's like a blank canvas that allows you to express yourself.
My son spent a long time just trying out all the attachments, exploring what each electronic input did. He also built a LEGO creature to upgrade KIBO. He drew and re-drew several designs on the whiteboard. It was fantastic to watch him be creative with KIBO.
Programming KIBO
To program KIBO you “build” your code by linking wooden blocks with pegs on one side. The pegs help to understand the direction of the code. Each block has a barcode (like the ones on products you buy at a store) and you use KIBO (the scanner) to scan the code in order, one block after the other.Press the green button to start running the program.
Sounds simple, but in practice, we found this part of KIBO frustrating. We weren’t able to consistently scan the code and the robot often beeped in error.
(Interestingly my son is left-handed and found it less natural to build the blocks from left to right slotting in the pegs.)
My son was also frustrated by the pegs on the blocks when it came to scanning the code. He wanted to pick a block up to scan it into the robot one at a time. The pegs help to keep the code in place, but it could also hinder quick changes to the code.
When we finally got the code scanned in and the robot was happy, the code worked well. The program runs once and you can press the start button to rerun the program.
When we had lots of attachments, including using the central stage, the start button was tucked underneath and we found it less accessible.
We wish KIBO could have a different way of “recording” the code. I’m sure over time, kids would get used to how the scanning works, but I would imagine this would be an initial frustration in a class setting, where you don’t have one-to-one support.
However, the programming capability is fantastic. My son had to think which blocks to include in his program based on the attachments he selected. There’s also lots of scope for more “advanced” programming with loops and logic blocks.
TIP: You MUST have the Begin block at the start of your program and the End block to finish it!
Many robots for this age category focus on driving a robot in different directions. KIBO provides a much wider scope and we were really impressed.
Verdict
If you can overlook the 1970s look and feel of KIBO, and persevere with scanning your code, KIBO is a brilliant learning tool to teach children coding concepts and robotics through exploration and play.It feels robust enough to withstand “rougher” use by the younger age category and offers a wide scope to get creative with craft materials and construction toys.
If you plan to use KIBO we highly recommend reading “Coding as a Playground” by Marina Bers, which contains a chapter dedicated to KIBO. The chapter explains how the robot works and also the thinking behind its design. If you don’t use KIBO, we still recommend reading the book (read our review)!
KIBO is available to purchase from the KinderLab Robotics Store.
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/fa-dice/ RANDOM$type=blogging$m=0$cate=0$sn=0$rm=0$c=3$va=0$src=random-posts
- 2013
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- accessories
- activities
- adafruit
- advent calendar
- adventure games
- amazon
- amazon fire
- amazon prime
- android
- angry birds
- animation
- anki
- app
- app toy
- app toys
- appcessories
- apple
- apps
- arcbotics
- architecture
- arckit
- arduino
- art
- artificial intelligence
- astronauts
- astronomy
- augmented reality
- automaton
- awards
- battle bots
- battling robots
- bedtime
- big kids
- big tablets
- bigtrak
- bike
- binary
- birthday
- bitsbox
- black friday
- blockly
- blogging
- bloxels
- bluetooth
- board games
- book
- books
- boolean box
- breadboard
- bricks
- brixo
- buying guide
- camera
- cameras
- card game
- careers
- catroid
- celebration
- cellphone
- ces
- chemistry
- chess
- christmas
- circuit cubes
- circuit playground
- circuit scribe
- cleaning
- climbing
- code clubs
- code-a-pillar
- codebug
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- coding
- cognitive learning
- communication
- comparison
- competition/challenges
- computational thinking
- computer
- computer games
- computer science
- computer vision
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- computing
- conductive playdough
- connected toys
- construction
- conversational ai
- cozmo
- craft
- craft cutter
- creative thinking
- creativity
- crochet
- crowdfunding
- css
- cubs
- curiosity
- curious chip
- cyber monday
- dads
- data
- deals
- dens
- design
- design process
- design thinking
- digital parenting
- digital skills
- disability
- disney infinity
- dog tech
- dolls
- drawing
- drones
- duinokit
- earth day
- Easter
- ebooks
- eco
- edblocks
- edison
- edtech
- education
- egypt
- electricity
- electronic pets
- electronic toys
- electronics
- electronics kit
- electronics kits
- electtronics
- elementary
- elenco
- energy
- engineering
- entertainment
- ereader
- ereaders
- esafety
- escape the room
- event
- ewriter
- exercise
- family
- family tech
- fathers day
- Festival of Code
- fiction
- fire
- fitbit
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- fitness tracker
- flotilla
- flow charts
- flutterbye fairy
- flying
- force awakens
- force friday
- future
- gadgets
- games
- games console
- games consoles
- gaming
- gift guide
- gifts
- girls
- giveaway
- glow in the dark
- grace hopper
- grove
- hackaball
- hacksoton
- halloween
- halloween costumes
- hardware
- headphones
- health
- hexbug
- hexbug aquabots
- hexbug project
- high school
- history
- home
- home education
- homeschool
- hot toys
- hour of code
- html
- humanoid
- ICT
- in app purchasing
- indiegogo
- industry event
- innotab
- innotab 3
- innotab 3s
- internet access
- interviews
- invention
- ios
- IoT
- ipad
- ipad mini
- iphone
- jacquard
- japan
- java
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- k'nex
- k'nex robotics
- kano
- keyboard
- kickstarter
- kids
- kindle
- kindle fire
- kit
- kits
- kodu
- kubo
- label printer
- languages
- laptop
- laptops
- last minute
- leap motion
- leapfrog
- leappad
- leappad 2
- leappad ultra
- leappad2
- leapreader
- learning
- learning resources
- learning tablet
- learning tablets
- leds
- lego
- lego boost
- lego chain reactions
- lego mindstorms ev3
- lego power functions
- lego technic
- lego wedo
- let's start coding
- lights
- lightseekers
- little kids
- littlebits
- logiblocs
- logic
- logical thinking
- loom
- machines
- magnetic
- make it
- makeblock
- makedo
- maker
- makey makey
- making
- mardles
- mars
- mars rover
- marty
- math
- maths
- mbot
- mbot ranger
- me arm
- meccano
- meccanoid
- meccanoid 2.0
- merge vr
- mews
- michael faraday
- micro:bit
- microbit
- microcontroller
- microscope
- microsoft
- middle school
- miles kelly
- mindstorms
- minecraft
- minecraft mods
- mixed reality
- mobile
- modular electronics
- monsters university
- morse code
- mothers day
- motion capture
- motors
- mover kit
- movie
- movies
- mu
- mu toys
- munzee
- music
- my first robot
- national dog day
- nature
- new
- new year
- news
- news coding
- nikola tesla
- nintendo
- nintendo switch
- ohbot
- ollie
- on the web
- opinion
- origami
- osmo
- outdoors
- ouya
- ozobot
- papercraft
- paperwhite
- parental controls
- parenting
- parrot
- pc
- people
- pet tech
- pets
- phone
- photography
- photon
- physics
- pi day
- picks
- pimoroni
- pinoccio
- pixel kit
- pixelart
- play
- playstation 4
- plezmo
- pocket code
- pocket money
- pokemon
- pokemon go
- poll
- pre order
- pre-teens
- prehistory
- preschoolers
- primary
- printable
- products
- professor einstein
- programming
- project
- projects
- puzzles
- python
- racing
- raspberry pi
- reading
- reivew
- remote control
- research
- resource
- resources
- retro
- review
- rights
- robot
- robot dog
- robot fish
- robot wars
- ROBOTERRA
- roboticals
- robotics
- robots
- role models
- role play
- romo
- romotive
- root
- rover
- safety
- sam labs
- samuel morse
- sandbox
- schools
- science
- scratch
- scratchjr
- screen time
- screenless
- screens
- sensors
- servos
- simbrix
- skills
- skylanders
- skylanders superchargers
- skylanders swap force
- smart pens
- smartphone
- smartwatch
- snap circuits
- social media
- solar power
- soldering
- sonic pi
- sony koov
- sound
- space
- sparki
- speaker
- speech sythesis
- sphero
- sphero mini
- spider
- star wars
- stars
- STEAM
- stem
- stikbot
- stop motion
- stop motion studio
- storage
- story
- strawbees
- students
- subscription
- subscriptions
- sugru
- summer
- swift
- tablet
- tablets
- tangible coding
- tech
- tech age
- tech craft
- tech is bad
- tech is good
- tech toys
- tech will save us
- technology
- technology will save us
- teens
- teknikio
- tekno
- teksta
- tenka labs
- tesla
- textiles
- thames & kosmos
- the extraordinaires
- tim berners lee
- tinkercad
- tinybop
- toddlers
- toot-toot
- top pick
- touch
- toy
- toys
- travelling
- TTS
- TV
- tween
- tweens
- tynker
- typing
- ux
- vehicles
- videos
- view-master
- views
- virtual reality
- voice assistants
- voice recognition
- vr
- vtech
- web
- websites
- wifi
- wii
- wii u
- windows 8
- wonder workshop
- wowwee
- writing
- writing. education
- xbox one
- xyzprinting