Description
Meet Sammy. This cute little peanut butter and jelly sandwich is actually a robot that teaches coding principles. You don’t need a tablet, smartphone, or computer to program this robot; programs are created by simply laying down a sequence of physical code cards. As the robot drives over the code cards, an OID optical scanner on the bottom of the robot reads the code cards one by one and loads the program. Next, place the robot on a grid made of map cards, and the robot runs the program. You can program the robot to move in different directions, activate its output gear, light up its LED, play sounds, and respond to different function cards. The integrated output gear makes it possible to build simple robotic creations with arms or other moving parts that respond according to the program’s instructions.
This robot kit from Thames & Kosmos, also provides a series of building and coding lessons. The 30 lessons are aligned with standards for computer science education developed by the Computer Science Teachers Association (CSTA) and the International Society for Technology (ISTE) Education, as well as courses from Code.org. The lessons progress in complexity through the illustrated manual and cover six key areas in coding: sequencing, loops, events, conditionals, functions and variables.
In addition to Sammy, there are five other stories, each with a series of model-building and coding challenges and lessons related to it: a mouse moves through a maze to find cheese; a penguin wanders around a zoo; a soccer player moves a ball into the goal; a fire truck puts out a fire and a factory robot performs tasks in a factory scene. A full-colour illustrated manual guides users through the coding lessons and the assembly of the different models.
