Hands-on learning has taken the entire education community by storm. In almost every town and in almost every grade, teachers are ditching the lectures, ditching the desks and embarking on a brand new kind of more meaningful educational experience. And, you know why? Because it works! Keep reading and explore some of the best EdTech tools for creating hands-on STEM environments and how you can use them to better understanding and shape future readiness every day!
Ozobot Introduces Young Kids to Coding
Ozobot is a tiny, optical robot—no bigger than a ping pong ball—that students can program and control using an innovative and age-appropriate form of coding. As an optical creature, the Ozobot responds to stimuli in the form of colors and also reacts to commands programmed by students in the form of color-coded blocks. Beneficial for kids as young as five, Ozobot seamlessly merges playful design with core scientific concepts to foster an innovative, game-based solution to introducing our youngest learners to the power of code. With so much being made about the vital importance of coding being taught in this day and age, the creators of Ozobot have gone a step further and created the perfect product for weaving it into classrooms as early as possible.
The Ozobot Robot comes pre-programmed with the ability to respond to many different color codes as well as a grid that illustrates the actions it can perform and how to make it execute those actions. Kids are encouraged to invent and participate in interactive lessons by creating courses on which the Ozobot can roam. Every time the Ozobot’s microscopic sensors detect a color on the course—either red, black, blue or green—its light will change color to reflect that discovery, supplying children with immediate feedback they can really use. This simple system of coding goes a long way in eliminating any fears kids may have had about tackling the complexity of the subject. By exposing them to coding in perhaps its simplest form, the Ozobot helps build familiarity and skills necessary to thriving in a tech-first world.
Besides immersing kids in a fun way to learn coding and programming, the Ozobot embodies versatility by also helping them become familiar with robots and some of their capabilities. Robotics is emerging as an extremely popular way for educators to introduce STEM education with the conception of afterschool and in-school robotics clubs and classes constantly increasing. Ozobot, as we already mentioned, can be a powerful way to engage young learners, but it also has a firm place in elementary, middle and high school as well. The capabilities the Ozobot holds allow it to enhance activities at all grade levels by incorporating anything from simple color coding to complex, project-based programming. There’s a reason why the Ozobot always draws a crowd.
Make Making Meaningful with the Makey Makey
If you’ve ever seen a bunch of bananas and some wires in pictures floating around the Internet, chances are you’ve already stumbled across the Makey Makey. Its popularity continues to grow despite being one of the earlier STEM tools to shape this generation of innovative learning. The Makey Makey is a tiny computer interface that uses the natural conductivity found in people and objects to make interactive touchpads out of almost anything. Its USB cable allows it to easily plug in to a computer or laptop and simple alligator clips help make connecting objects a snap for kids as young as five years old!
Using the Makey Makey and Web-based programs, kids can create anything from interactive piggy banks to pianos made of fruit. Anything that’s conductive—even water—will work to complete the circuit as kids immediately see which things have conductivity and which do not. The Makey Makey board contains inputs for the four directional keys on the keyboard as well as the space bar and mouse. These ports correspond with the keys on the keyboard, so when kids press the object associated with the key, it will carry out that function. One of the best programs to use with the Makey Makey is Scratch—a web-based intro to hands-on learning. Using Scratch, kids can create and mix any number of coding-style programs and immerse themselves deeper into the learning with the Makey Makey.
The Makey Makey is great for quick, in-class projects or for extended makerspace activities. Its essence lies in its name; the Makey Makey allows kids to make any object a key. This, of course, means that the Makey Makey helps transform everyday objects into functioning interfaces that actually carry out specific actions when stimulated. It helps kids master the concepts of electricity and conductivity while also helping nurture key problem solving and exploration skills that build creativity in learning. Since it only needs a tiny bit of conductivity to work, the Makey Makey is one of the best ways to spark a love of STEM education by the time students reach first grade.
littleBits Make Anyone an Engineer
The average person, even young children, reportedly spends up to 11 hours a day near or using electronics. During this time, they, more than likely, are only consuming the product, but littleBits offers a practical solution to this issue. Perfect for illustrating all sorts of important concepts, littleBits are magnetic modules that snap to each other to form functional structures. These structures, with the help of student construction, could be made into devices that blink, buzz, vibrate and more! This new breed of building blocks helps promote the lighter side of hands-on education while simultaneously helping kids learn about the makeup of electronics, their functions and their capabilities.
littleBits are powered by electronics and thrive off of the magnetic attraction they share. Packed inside these bite-sized modules lies enough power to truly transform STEM education. Each block has its own specific function—input, output, power or action—and they come color coded to indicate those functions. Their simplicity and structural makeup truly make engineering possible for anyone—students included—regardless of if they have had any actual training. What’s really great about littleBits is the progressive approach they offer. The Base Kit serves as an introduction to modular electronics and, as kids grow, each of the littleBits kits seems to grow with them, adding in new modules to correspond with their abilities until they wind up creating Internet-connected devices and coding with snap-and-go blocks once they reach high school.
The goal of littleBits is to combine education, technology and innovation into one accessible, progressive and age-appropriate learning tool. In STEM classrooms around the world, littleBits has already begun empowering students with potent technology and continues to fuel wide levels of creativity through the emergence of project-based learning using the kits. Today’s generation of students needs inspiration to become a part of the world of innovators and littleBits consistently delivers that spark. Best of all, many of the projects kids can make with littleBits are available on their website (and ours) with step-by-step instructions so kids get it right every time! Try littleBits soon and witness the overwhelming satisfaction of combining engineering and creativity with such a useful product!
Introducing Coding to Early Learners with Kano
There are more and more EdTech products being introduced into the market these days that teach young students the basic principles of coding, programming and design. Not many, however, incorporate coding on a functioning computer that kids build themselves! The Kano Computer Kit is an all-encompassing learning toolbox that introduces kids to the power of hands-on coding after they have built some construction skills by crafting their own computer right out of the box! For parents or teachers who want their children or students to learn how to code, the Kano is a must-have tool for developing future-ready skills.
The Kano kits come with its own personal microcomputer—the Raspberry Pi—and all the parts kids need (except the monitor) to build their own computer. Its operating system comes preloaded on a microSD card; all kids have to do is insert it into the Raspberry Pi. When it comes to Kano, much of the learning comes in the set-up. Students gain a whole lot of knowledge by physically putting the computer together as they get to know the functions of the hardware and parts. The power cord and HDMI cord both connect to the Raspberry Pi. The HDMI, of course, is what provides a picture on the monitor—you’ll see the Kano Computer’s bright orange logo once you power it on!
After it’s been set up, the Kano’s power really becomes apparent. Kids not only can play a couple of classic games—like Pong and Snake—they’ll build the games themselves using perfectly illustrated instructions to code in the requirements. Kano also comes equipped with a full browser and can do just about anything a regular desktop or laptop can do! There are interactive, on-screen tutorials that truly immerse kids in the learning process, making sure they understand what they’ve done before they’re allowed to move on to the next step. They can even create their own Avatar and use it to explore all the different apps the Kano has, including Minecraft! It really is an exceptional and innovative tool for teaching STEM concepts and helping prepare kids for the real world.
Tiny, Mobile Robot Introduces Kids to Engineering
Combining more than one area of STEM education has long been a goal of innovative teachers and resulted in a certain level of intrigue among students. For instance, if there were an EdTech product that perfectly combined high-tech robotics with hands-on construction, that would probably be something to catch the eye of more than a few 21st century educators. But, wait—there is! Fairly new on the EdTech scene, the mBot is an app-controlled, Bluetooth-enabled, build-it-yourself mobile robot that perfectly illustrates both robotics and design concepts while seamlessly introducing kids to hardware! Created by robotics experts, the mBot is a truly do-it-yourself way to give life to an educational robot.
We mentioned that the mBot is a robot that kids build themselves. It comes with step-by-step instructions to ensure accuracy in construction and one of its centerpieces is an Arduino-like platform that creates all kinds of programming possibilities for kids to explore. This component, especially when combined with the general building process, is designed and excels at helping children launch an early start in exploring the STEM disciplines. Despite the potentially overwhelming 45 pieces in the kit, the mBot can actually be constructed in as little as 15 minutes—leaving plenty of time to experiment and play for the rest of the class! Every little part you need is in the kit, including some very high-quality materials to make for an exceptionally personal hands-on experience.
The mBot was designed specifically for amplifying student engagement and enhancing modern-day STEM education. With painless set-up and a variety of pre-assembled program features, the mBot gets kids programming with hands-on activities right away through dozens of at-home or in-class learning games! It’s designed to introduce programing earlier than ever and illustrate the ease of exerting control over robots and the power of supplying commands to trigger specific functions. Since mBot’s electronic components are based on the Arduino open-source ecosystem, it’s even possible to add additional mechanical parts and any electronic models you need to build, customize and learn with your dream robot!
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