Coding Lessons for Kids RGB Light Programming

This is our second coding lesson using Micro:bit and DFRobot Maqueen. In case you missed the first lesson you can check it out here, Coding Lessons for Kids Using BBC Microbit Robot Car.

In this lesson we explore another device, programmable colored LED lights, integrated in the robot car. We will also introduce the concept of "FUNCTIONS" in programming and how to do it via the MakeCode program editor.

Coding Lessons for Kids Using BBC Microbit Robot Car

I've finally selected the platform that I will use in introducing Vito to programming.  We got this programmable car MAQUEEN from DFROBOT.  My reasons for selecting this toy are: simple to assemble, no operating system setup needed, web based visual programming editor, and abundance of peripherals that can be programmed such as: motors, LED lights, RGB lights, LED matrix display, distance sensor, temperature sensor, push buttons, infrared sensor, speaker, and so on.

Vito is still very young at this stage, 6 years old, to learn programming but with my supervision and thru play I hope to introduce him to the exciting things that can be done with programming.

Coding Robot Toys Wishlist for 2019

I'm preparing to introduce Vito to programming this coming year. I was planning to start with visual based programming or block based programming such as Scratch which Mavi used in his CoderDojo classes in the past years. But based on my recent research there are already a lot of kids toys these days that can be programmed with visual blocks. One class of toys make use of the BBC Microbit Makecode programming blocks. So for a more hands-on method to introducing or experiencing programming we plan to use some of the toys listed below.

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!!!