I hope this list may be useful to you so your students can have a fun way to learn and be introduced to programming. And yes, these Programmable Robot toys can be good Christmas presents as well!!!
BBC Microbit Programmable Toys for Kids
Some of the toys listed in this section may not include the BBC Microbit processor board so you may need to buy the processor board separately. Here's a link to where you can check or buy the BBC Micro:bit Processor board.The BBC Microbit processor board can already be programmed on its own. It has a 5x5 LED matrix, 2 push button switch, reset switch, accelerometer, compass, and bluetooth radio. For more details on its features you can go to microbit.org.
Elenco Teach Tech Tobbie II, BBC Micro:bit Robot
Elenco is the company behind the popular Electronic Circuit Building toy for kids called Snap Circuits Jr. We have the Snap Circuits Jr. at home and is one of Vito's favorite techie toy. And now for learning how to code, this new programmable robot toy maybe a good starting point for him.
Yahboom Coding Robot 9 in 1 Building Blocks Kit for Kids Micro:bit BBC DIY Programmable Robot
This is another nice option. This toy is more LEGO technic like. You can create or build 9 different types of programmable structures as shown in the picture below.
Freenove Micro:Rover Kit for BBC Micro:bit
This toy kit also contains detailed tutorials with rich projects, blocks and python code.This kit and two (KEYESTUDIO Micro:bit Mini Smart Robot Car V2.0 (No Micro:bit Main Board), DFROBOT Maqueen Micro:bit Robot) others that I listed here requires minimal assembly and you can go straight to learning programming and enjoy playing right away.
As you can see in the picture below, here are the things that you can program your smart robot car to do:
- Play some note or melody with its on-board buzzer
- Program its on-board LED lights with different colors
- Make it follow a light source with its photo sensitive sensor
- Make it avoid obstacles with its ultrasonic sensor
- Make it follow a track autonomously via its line tracking sensors
- Control it wirelessly via the Micro:bit's bluetooth radio
- And much more. Checkout its tutorial here
KEYESTUDIO Micro:bit Mini Smart Robot Car V2.0 (No Micro:bit Main Board)
Yahboom Micro:bit Spider Robot Building Set
DFROBOT Maqueen Micro:bit Robot
Check out the Basic Programming lessons that we've done with this robot car here, Coding Lessons for Kids Using BBC Microbit Robot Car.
Apitor SuperBot, Educational Building Block 18 in 1 Robot Kit
LEGO Boost Programmable Robot Toys
To those who are fans of LEGO, at the moment LEGO offer the following programmable building sets.LEGO Star Wars Boost Droid Commander 75253 Star Wars Droid
LEGO Boost Creative Toolbox 17101 Fun Robot Building Set
We bought this toy last year and it was good. With regard to assembly, it takes time to build (around 4 to 6 hours). Maybe the assembly will be suited for 7 year old kids and up. The App that came with it is a bit limited (in terms of programmable features) but the kids still had a lot of fun with it. Also we tried programming and setting it up with Scratch and it was a lot better. So this coming year we would like to try a more open system kind of toy that is why we've listed the Micro:bit powered toys in this post.
ZERO Assembly Robot Toys
I've added this section for very very young kids who are not yet ready to start appreciating visual block programming and are not yet capable of building stuff on their own.HBUDS Toy Remote Voice Control, Programmable, Touch Sensing Robot
Echeers Kids Toys Dancing Robot
REMOKING Robot Toy
And that's about it. Happy programming and playing.
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