The award-winning educational tech toy start-up, Tech Will Save Us has launched a range of new DIY coding kits.
The new kits include the Kickstarter funded Dough Universe set comprised of three kits which are available as a set or separately, and companion kit to the BBC micro:bit, micro:mods.
To promote the products, they have also created their first ever campaign, ’Side Effects’, which demonstrates the potential side effects that Tech Will Save Us toys will have on kids lives, including creating a robotic gang and an innovative spin on pet transportation! You can see the video here: https://vimeo.com/
Comprised of the Techno Sounds Kit, Bright Creatures Kit and Electro Machines Kit (sold together or separately), Dough Universe teaches kids ages 4-7 about electronics through good old messy play. The kits use conductive dough and basic circuits to teach the fundamentals of electricity through light, movement, and sound. Each kit retails for £39.99 or £107.99 as a set.
- Squishy Sounds Kit - Get your dough playing to its own tune. With this kit, kids can build keyboards, drums, and pianos and will learn how electricity creates sound.
- Bright Creatures Kit - Make your dough creations blink, light and flash up with LEDs and buzzers. Kids can mould weird and wonderful creatures like a fire-breathing dragon or a snake with light-up scales.
- Electro Machines Kit - Make your dough creations spin, roll, and move. By creating cars, robots and high five machines, kids learn the basics of how mechanics work. Let your kids’ imaginations soar by creating their very own flying dough helicopter!
RRP: £39.99 each or £107.99 as a set
Retailers (UK): Selfridges, Maplin, Harrods, The Conran Shop, The Shop at Bluebird, Fenwick (Kingston), Fenwick (Newcastle)
I was lucky enough to receive a sample of a Micro:Bit and a very savvy Dad, Stuart Garner, kindly done a brilliant review for me. Please see below how Stuart got on.
I have worked as a computer programmer for
over 10 years in the educations and games sectors. For a number of years I
commuted into London but eventually got tired of travel and being away from the
family so took a job close to home. I love all things technology and spend many
hours discussing science related stuff with my 8 year old son, who often knows
more than me.
BBC
micro:bit go.
I never pass up the opportunity to have a play
with a new toy and when I was approached by @bad_mum_ to do a review of the
MicroBit I jumped at the chance even though I was a little unsure of what it
actually was. It did, however, promise to fulfil several key aspects of a good
“Boys Toy.” It had buttons and lights and, by what I saw on the website, could
be used to make all sorts of robots, musical instruments and interactive
paraphernalia. It can also help teach children the basics of computer
programming. “Maybe I should let my son have a go with it” I thought
reluctantly “maybe…”
Thinking
out of the box:
Still unsure of what it actually did, I
received the package with excitement and I immediately opened the box labelled
“Open First.” As a professional I thought it was best for me to have a good
play with the item before letting my son loose with it. Its was important for
me to understand its full potential and, besides, he might be better at
programming it than me so I needed a head start.
First impressions were that it was a lot
smaller than I imagined it to be. The box is slightly bigger than a cooks match
box and the device itself is about half the size of a credit card.
I managed to resist the usual temptation to
just plug it in and see what happens. Instead, opted to follow the
instructions. Luckily for me the basic steps are outlined on the inside of the
box and you can have the device ready in under a minute. You have to play a
couple of very simple games and press the input buttons in the correct
sequence. To my surprise and pleasure one of the games involves tilting the
device around so that one LED moves across the display to meet another static
LED. It took me a few seconds to realise thats what I had to do but it was a
tantalising glimps into the abilities of this diminutive circuit board.
With my curiosity spurred on by this I decided
to find out exactly what I had in my possession. I headed to the MicroBit web site which I found
was a little ambiguous at first but after a sort while it became clear.
So What
is it?
In a nut shell the Micro:bit can be thought of
as a programable sensor rather than a computer. It comes loaded with a
thermometer, accelerometer, light sensor and compass. User interaction can be
captured with the two simple buttons, the accelerometer or expanded with he use
of the “pins” which are copper plates at the bottom of the device. Output can
be sent to LED array between the buttons or transmitted via bluetooth to a
smartphone or iPad. Most importantly though the devise can be programmed to use
any of its features to perform various tasks and it can be used to control
other external devices via the pins.
So now with this knowledge and a working
MicroBit in my hand I wanted to know how to make it do what I wanted.
First
experiments: Adding some code:
The website make its easy to get started with
customising your MicroBit. There are clear instructions that get you up and
running in a few minutes. The real power and learning potential of the
equipment becomes clear once you explored the coding tool which is introduced
to you though a few basic coding examples. This might sound scary but it is
actually quite simple. The too is an application that allows you to drag and
drop sections of code to build simple programs that can then be sent to your
Micro:bit to perform. A nice touch is that you are presented with an emulation
of the Micro:bit so you can see your program in action before you send it to
your device. That way you can be sure that it will work and not break anything.
In fact, if there is an error in your code the emulation shows you a sad face
an prompts you to look for the problem.
At this point it is quite simple to get the
device to perform some very basic tasks and you need no prior programming
experience. There is a simple onStart code block and pretty much anything will
start to work if you drop it into that. For example, adding a text string to it
produces a scrolling message sent across the LED’s and once you have run out of
comical messages to write you can quickly start to get some basic interaction
with the buttons.
Getting
More Adventurous:
At this point I decided that it was time to
explore the Micro Mods set that came with this Micro:Bit. This consisted of a
light strip with about 24 colour changing LEDs and some other components.
Instructions on how to set this Mod up can be found online and are incredible
easy to follow. It comes complete with some pre made code that you can download
in order to enjoy a demonstration of what the light strip can do.
It was at this point that I, reluctantly, let my son
loose with the device. He is 8 years old and it only took him a few minutes to
get to grips with the basic features. He quite competently managed to get the strip
to change colour and, more impressively, worked with delays so that the strip
would cycle through the changes at a pleasant pace. He did all of this with
very little input from me.
Awkwardly for me, he soon started to ask
questions about some of the deeper coding concepts. I found myself trying to
explain some of the core coding ideas that I use every day, but you don’t
appreciate how abstracted they can be until you have to teach a child. After
trying to verbally explain features like variables and loops and seeing my sons
blank faced reaction I was grateful I had the coding tool to assist me. It was
a big help, as I could quickly demonstrate how something worked and he could
play with it without fear of breaking anything. Before long he was asking me to
do things even I didn’t know how to do. I quickly resorted to the “why don’t
you look that up?” retort to get me off the hook.
What’s
Possible:
My son and I have only just scratched the
surface of what you could potentially do with the Micro:bit. Teaming it up with
other devices expands it even further into something that can perform useful
task rather than just pretty experiments. However, the more advanced you get
the more complicated it becomes. Anyone without a background in computing can
get something out of the Micro:Bit but you may start to struggle when it come to
the more complex things and certainly an 8 year old would find it very
difficult. But to be fair the device is really aimed at secondary school
children and 14 year olds these day probably know more about programming and
electronics than I ever will. The beauty of this device is that its not just a
tool to teach programming skills. Because of its array of sensors it can be
lend itself to all sorts of activities and can be used to introduce technology
into subjects such as geography, languages and even art. Its is not
exaggeration that your imagination is the only limit.
Conclusions:
Initially I was a little apprehensive but
after working though a few tasks and introducing it to my son I can see the
potential of this device. My son really took to it. More so than I thought he
would and he got to grips with programming with ease. The online resources are
excellent and probably have some of the most thought out well designed
instructions I have ever seen. While the Micro:Bit is aimed at older children
who will get a lot more out of it there is still plenty a child of 8 or even a
bit younger can get out of it, though, you will have to be more heavily
involved yourself so be ready to be asked some complex questions.
Written by Stuart
Garner @decodeddad
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