When people think about coding, they think about an adult sitting in front of a computer furiously typing strings of code for a computer program, AI, or video game, with "adult" being the keyword of the description.
If people were told that there is a way to teach coding to kids aged within the PK-12 category, nobody would have believed it. However, there is a device that was advertised to be able to teach coding to children and is actually successful in its purpose.
Enter the Sphero Bolt, a programmable robot sphere from Sphero.
Sphero Details: Specs And Capabilities
The Sphero Bolt is a learning robot that teaches children Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) + ART (STEAM), which transforms the way children and adolescents learn, create, and invent through coding, science, engineering, and the arts, per Sphero's official website.
This particular offering from Sphero also comes with the ability to teach its young users coding, robotics, and STEM principles through play-based learning. This particular feature does need the Sphero Edu app to function, but the app is free and is compatible with Windows 10 version 16299.0 or later, Android 5.0, and iOS 9.0, with the user's or their parent's device sending code to the Sphero Bolt via Bluetooth, per Tom's Hardware.
The robot can teach its users Javascript, which is one of the core programming languages of the World Wide Web. In fact, users can program Sphero using the same coding language they learn from it. However, any code that requires camera or audio output will tap into the connected device's peripherals to work.
The robot itself consists of a transparent plastic polycarbonate shell that contains the robot's components. The robot comes with an inductive charging station that looks like a small cradle that the robot sits in.
Aside from those, the robot also has a programmable 8x8 RGB LED matrix sitting at the top center of the robot, two RGB LED lights, and one backlight that always stays blue to help users know where the Sphero is facing. It also has four infrared red emitter and receiver pairs which the robot uses to communicate to another Sphero Bolt and a magnetometer for finding North and auto-aiming it so its blue tail light faces the user.
The robot stays balanced thanks to an inertial measurement unit that reads the accelerometer and gyroscope.
Users can also play using the robot, as Sphero Play (a free app, too) comes with three games and six different ways to move the Sphero Bolt around.
Sphero Bolt Success and Customization
Thanks to its capabilities, the Sphero Bolt found success as both a toy and a learning tool, so much so that the robot is being used in schools to help children of all ages learn STEAM and computer science learning. It also provides more than one hundred learning activities aligned to national and international standards for easy integration into curriculums, per Sphero's Getting Started for Teachers page.
New Atlas mentioned in its article that the Sphero Bot would be loved by kids trying to learn coding or just for entertainment purposes.
The robot's success made such an impact that Sphero decided to create Sphero Bolts that look like BB-8, R2-D2 from "Star Wars" and other Disney-inspired characters. However, The company discontinued these products due to them being a drain on resources, with The Verge reporting that Sphero found the licensed toy business as not worth the resources it shells out.
Sphero's partnership with Disney lasted only three years.
The Sphero Bolt costs $179 and can be bought in Sphero's page for the robot.
