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What beginner's set to buy to a 12-year old boy? — Parallax Forums

What beginner's set to buy to a 12-year old boy?

rytromrytrom Posts: 1
edited 2012-07-30 11:18 in General Discussion
Considering buying a beginner set to my son for his 12th birthday. Do you recommend BOE-BOT robot kit or the discovery kit?

Comments

  • RDL2004RDL2004 Posts: 2,554
    edited 2012-07-29 10:34
    The Basic Stamp Activity Kit is very similar to the Discovery Kit, and you can get one free with a Boe-Bot Kit.

    Boe-Bot + FREE BASIC Stamp Activity Kit
  • Mike GreenMike Green Posts: 23,101
    edited 2012-07-29 11:45
    Ditto on the combination. The BoeBot will get his interest, but having the Stamp Activity Kit will encourage basic learning about digital signals and programming. I'd suggest throwing in the Ping and its mounting bracket kit which will allow the BoeBot to do much more sophisticated navigation.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,259
    edited 2012-07-29 15:17
    The best bang for the buck in the whole Parallax store is the $30 Stamp Activity kit: http://www.parallax.com/Store/Microcontrollers/BASICStampProgrammingKits/tabid/136/CategoryID/11/List/0/SortField/0/Level/a/ProductID/789/Default.aspx

    Two reasons it's so incredibly inexpensive is that it comes in a bag (not a box) and it comes with the older textbook. You can download the newer textbook for free as a pdf.
  • NWCCTVNWCCTV Posts: 3,629
    edited 2012-07-29 17:14
    Erco, You are correct with one exception. A 12 year old boy will get bored very quickly with just the Basic Stamp Kit. At least with the BoeBot kit there is more to do, more to learn and he can actually watch his work roll around when complete. Count me in as voting for RDL2004's post.
  • ercoerco Posts: 20,259
    edited 2012-07-29 18:40
    Arrggghhh...
  • prof_brainoprof_braino Posts: 4,313
    edited 2012-07-30 10:50
    This is still unsolved.
    First off, what does the 12 year old like?
    Also, who is going to help the kid? If its not your kid, better consider if its withing the parent's scope to do the required mentoring. This is critical. Technology without a way to show how its fun can backfire.
  • LoopyBytelooseLoopyByteloose Posts: 12,537
    edited 2012-07-30 11:18
    What does a 12 year old boy like? fun. Though I suspect that girls might offend him. He might enjoy making something that 'they' hate.

    I have a younger Taiwanese boy that I have given the WAM kit to and he was very disappointed that a robot was NOT included. We solved that with a Tamiya dual motor kit and some home built H-bridges. But what I am finding is that in order to keep him engaged in electronics, I should not try to feed him a course directly from a text. It is all about exploring and discovering at his pace. He asks if something is possible and I spend a week finding a way to take him one step closer to that. At times, the WAM kit is useful and even important, but don't expect most kids to want to jump in and work through a test from front to back. Right now, the robot is working with control by a long wire and 4 buttons to the H-bridge. He loves it and doesn't yet want to bother with either radio or IR control. So we are doing other things with circuitry that will slowly get into the WAM kit.

    It has to be fun. Not too serious also helps. Overly complicated tends to drive a lot of kids away.
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