The Sphero Robots truly work great in K–12 STEAM and CS education. We mean really great. Starting early on, and then all the way up through middle school, teachers love the value that the Sphero solutions add to classroom instruction. Perfect for empowering true 21st century problem solvers, the various Sphero Robots are must-add teaching tools with a ton of upside.
The latest evolution in robotics education is here. Sphero has released its brand-new app-enabled robot, BOLT, and it’s the perfect tool for teaching robotics and programming! Bolster your school’s robotics program with all new ways to teach drawing, block, and text programming while creating endless opportunities for learning and fun!
This week in the Eduporium Experiment, we’re diving into Part 2 of the Sphero Mini. In the first Sphero Mini blog, we addressed the differences between the Sphero SPRK+ and the Mini. This week, we are going to discuss the various apps that students can use with the Mini and how to apply them in a classroom, makerspace, or at home!
Sphero is already incredibly easy to integrate in the classroom and super simple for kids to learn coding. We don’t want the simplicity to stop with students, though, so we added Sphero’s Cheaper By the Dozen and Half Dozen kits on our store for teachers. Now, you can get more organized thanks to the included box (12-pack), charging hubs, covers, and more!
We know that there might be a lot of teachers who believe that children are experienced with SPRK+ and want the next best thing. Well, the Ollie robot can flip, spin, and perform combinations of tricks to keep all your students engaged! Programmable and drivable just like the SPRK+, the Ollie model can also help students take their robotics skills to the next level.
App-enabled and Bluetooth-connected, the Sphero Mini is similar to the Sphero SPRK+, but brings some new and exciting features to the playing field. Students, for example, can drive the Mini using different modes, such as joystick, tilt, slingshot, or even face drive, which allows them to control the robot using their own facial expressions!
The Sphero Mini is exceptional at introducing students to topics like physics, problem solving, creativity, collaboration, and coding. Unlike other robots, however, the Sphero Mini is completely round. This allows it to roll around—sometimes pretty quickly—and enables kids to control both its movements and speed with code.
We don’t care how. We just want to help teachers get kids coding. And what better time of the year to do so? We trust that everyone has been having a great CS Ed Week, but if you want to try some new things towards the end of it or carry it over into next week or even next year, we’ve got some suggestions for how you can do it.
The SPRK+ is one of Sphero’s latest additions to their seriously cool line of robots. Although only the size of a baseball, it is packed with educational power. When paired with the Sphero Edu app, the opportunities for learning are boundless. Kids have the option to write code in either a Blockly or path drawing environment.
Thinking about the hottest and most useful skills that today’s students will, more than likely, need to know, the first thing that always comes to my mind is coding. Coding is everywhere in the workforce in 2016. For students in first and second grade now, however, coding will be in even more places than everywhere by the time they’re ready for job hunting.
