Robots/coding for younger elementary aged kids

[Penderwink]

My soon to be six year old recently came across Ozobot at an experiment workshop and was immediately enchanted and played for hours. He also likes simple coding type games in apps like Funexpected Math.

His birthday is coming up and I am looking at buying him some sort of robot/coding set. I’m considering the Ozobot, also the Lego Spike (Essential) set. Plus points for us would be that the coding shouldn’t require much reading/writing, that there would be a set of lessons or tutorials to work through, and that the set is accessible and fun now, but that there is scope to grow and develop as he gets older. We don’t have loads of space, so the small size of the Ozobot was appealing.

Does anyone have, or have experience with the Ozobot or Lego Spike set? Is there anything else I should be looking at?

Edited May 5 by Penderwink

[Clarita]

Honestly I'd look at this like a toy I'm buying for my child and I would not figure in "educational" aspect into this thought process at all. They look like really cool toys. 

If I were shopping for my own son I would gravitate toward Lego Spike set because he does have little bit of his momma in him that he likes to build things. I did get him a programming robot when he was little (because for the most part he is almost like a replica of his dad), but dad had more fun with the toy than he did. (https://qubs.toys/products/cody-block) Other children have come to my house and enjoyed the toy.  

[Wheres Toto]

I've used Ozobot, Dot & Dash, Sphero, Botley, Edison, and Lego Spike Essentials for classes.  

If he likes Lego in general and likes to build things in addition to coding, I'd go with the Lego.   There are two versions you get with the app - one uses picture based icons and the other uses text based icons, so it definitely has room to grow.   It needs a computer but will work with Chromebooks.  Maybe it works on Ipads but I'm not sure.   The kits are $$$$.

If he's not particularly interested in building with Legos but wants a robot to play with that has a lot of programming options, I would go with Sphero.   It has two different (free) apps - Sphero Edu and Sphero Play.   The Edu can be used to drive the robot around like a remote controlled car, draw a path programming, icon based programming, and text based programming.  The Play app has a bunch of different ways to make the robot move including tilting the tablet back and forth, yelling at it (that one is soooo much fun when they discover it), plus games you can play using the robot as the controller.   Sphero requires a tablet but can be used on the $49 Kindle Fire tablets if you set them up for Google Play Store, and the Sphero minis are only $49 on Amazon.  

Ozobot, Dot & Dash, and Botley are more like toys and limited IMO. 

Edison was pretty neat while it worked but was limited and broke easily with even slightly rough use.

 

[SFisher]

My kids also like robots. They have used sphero and ozobots at public school a little. I feel like they're intended for schools… they are fairly expensive and hard to break, but very limited in what they can do. (This is just my opinion, based on limited experience, so feel free to disagree with me!).

I lean toward more open ended stuff, here's a few other adjacent thoughts:

• snap circuits - very open ended introduction to electrical circuits - you can use the parts to make sounds, lights, make a disk fly, etc.

• look for a class - especially for the legos, that way they can be exposed to it and explore it with guidance, but you don't have to make the investment up front. If he gets into it, then buy a set. 

• RC cars and trucks - cheap, lots of variety.

• Let them take a part broken toys. It's OK if they just want to see what's inside, but they may also build something new. 

• Hex bugs + hex bugs nano zone. Hex bugs are robots, but you can't control them, you just turn them on or off, but you can build structures around them that control where they go. The nano zone gives you some structures to build - but you could also build things out of legos/magnatiles, etc.

• hot wheels tracks - they come with different types of mechanical launchers. We have one that uses rubberband power, one that uses battery power. Lots of testing/tinkering with the track and car types happening. Measuring speed and distance.

• knex - you can buy sets with motors… so open ended motorized building

 

 

[Penderwink]

Thank you all for your answers and suggestions. We got lucky, and while we were visiting a science center, had the chance to try out Lego Spike Prime (the 10+ one) and also talk to a staff member who had used both Ozobots and Lego Spike, among others. (@SFisher - they agreed with you that Ozobots were rather limited in what they can actually do.)

We will probably be getting season passes to the science center. It will give us access to all of these things, plus multiple other fun projects. It is far enough away though that visits can’t be weekly, 

We will probably get the Lego Spike essentials, but also considering skipping directly to Spike prime based on discussion with staff member. He was really into it. I think fine motor-wise/ability to be independently successful, the 6+ essentials set will be a better match.

@SFisher: there are a few camps locally, which we may look at in the older age groups, but I’m not convinced on price and suitability for my kid. (i.e. the courses are expensive enough that to cover one week at the technology camp, he could attend a week of regular crafts/playing/forest day camp, plus we could buy the Lego set.) Thanks for the suggestions - he already loves building hot wheels set ups, and using his snap circuits to light up various constructions, so will definitely check out the Hexbugs and Knex.

@Wheres Toto : He is very into Lego and building things in general. He basically will just want to build his own thing, but because the coding/mechanism aspect is new to him, I think having some sort of introduction to the capabilities will be useful. If he follows some of the lessons, it would give him a starting point he can then start modifying.

@Clarita: Thanks for the advice on Lego for if he’s interested in building. He has had access to Codyblock (at least for a while, it might have been a loan) through his school class, but he didn’t mention it especially. (Whereas I do hear more about whatever he built from Legos  that day).