How young and what kit to start with?

KatyBri

If there are any educators or Parallax folks reading this, I would appreciate your feed back.

I have a friend who has a ten-year-old son who I would like to introduce to electronics.

I was thinking of giving him one of Parallax's robot kits for Christmas, but I'm not sure he is old enough or this would be the right kit for his first kit?

Any comments would be appreciated. Thanks.

Mike Green

I'm neither an educator nor a Parallax folk, but I've known my share of 10 year olds. I think it depends on the quality and experience of the adult available and the interests of the 10 year old. I think a BoeBot would be very reasonable, particularly with the What's a Microcontroller? tutorial and parts kit. The "hook" would be the robotics ... and there are some canned programs that could be used to use it as a toy, but the learning part would be to work through the tutorials, both WAM? and Robotics and adult guidance and encouragement would be a big part of this initially.

allanlane5

And if you can get a Scribbler at the same time, that might help. The Scribbler has a much shorter "assembly to use" period.

Heh, and there's nothing like having TWO robots to raise thought of BATTLE in a 10-year old mind.

Ken Gracey

My experience is that it entirely depends on the nature and interest of the kid, and the ability of an adult to assist - at least at age 10. If he has an interest in science, making things, using computers, and a longer attention span (this is key) then he could handle the Boe-Bot. I also think the success rate will be higher if the kid doesn't already have it all techno-wise. I've met some really smart kids who had limited access to these types of things and they really got hooked.

On the other side, I've also met some really "smart" 10 year olds who were too busy telling me how everything in the Boe-Bot works, and how he could put the BASIC Stamp into a guided rocket, yet wouldn't take the time to read and type the code.· These students had been over-exposed to cool technology at a·young age.

If you think he's the patient, interested kid with some limited access to such·interesting things as the Boe-Bot, give it a shot. You'll need to schedule·a few hours here and there to help him get started.

The·Scribbler would work with either personality type. I've·used a few dozen of them in my son's grade school·with 5th graders and they can't get enough. Just give them a tour of the GUI, a·Sharpie pen and butcher paper, and they're set.

Ken Gracey
Parallax, Inc.