Programming

We need a great way to teach our kids how to harness their curiosity into something that can be used for later in life. What if we could teach our kids some of the skills that will need to know to be in an industry that is leading the future?

Lego Education has launched a new STEAM learning package designed to give kids of all abilities more coding confidence. The Spike Prime set includes hundreds of Lego bricks, sensors and motors, a programmable multi-port Hub, and a companion app featuring a block-based coding environment.

​Sphero is probably best known for its BB-8 rolling droid, but has recently been aiming its products at future programmers and makers. The company has opted to take to Kickstarter for its latest bot, which has been designed to be tweaked and hacked by adult hobbyists and young roboticists alike.​

Most home robots aren’t particularly customizable. Now robotics startup Ohbot has unveiled its newest creation Picoh, a blank slate of a robot that can be programmed to do basically whatever you want it to do.

Misty Robotics reckons it's arrived at the point when its personal robot will go from development dream to widespread adoption. The bot has been designed to be relatively inexpensive and easy to access for those new to programming, while capable enough for seasoned roboticists to experiment with.

​Glasgow's Curious Chip has today launched an edutainment handheld gaming device aimed at getting youngsters coding, tinkering and experimenting. Pip has been created to give the coders and makers of tomorrow the building blocks they need today.​

On the outside, robots don't come much simpler than a ball, but that doesn't do justice to the tech inside the gadgets from Sphero. New Atlas went hands on with the company's latest offering, a tiny app-connected robot ball called the Sphero Mini ​that's both drivable and programmable.

​Parents wanting to get their kids into coding are spoiled for choice, but there aren’t many gadgets for an older audience. Hexa is a six-legged, sensor-laden robot that’s a blank slate for people to program their own functionality into, and share those skills across a social network of tinkerers.

With an automated future looming, getting our kids interested in coding is becoming just as important as reading, writing and arithmetic. The latest project to join efforts from Fisher-Price, Google and Osmo is Algobrix, a learning platform where youngsters build colorful bots and play with code.​

Programming most robots to grasp and retrieve an object can be a rather complex process. That's why scientists at the Georgia Institute of Technology have developed a new system that simply requires users to click twice with a computer mouse.​

On January 22, 7,000 new games sprang into existence, after a 48-hour jam session called the Global Game Jam, undertaken by over 36,000 people. Some may become commercial products, but the real focus is on innovation, collaboration, and getting more people into the art and business of making games.

A little over 18 months after first announcing its intention to inspire the coders of tomorrow with its freely distributed micro:bit computer, the BBC has given the project independence. The newly created Micro:bit Educational Foundation will now be championing the device globally.