A Magnificent Bot

Posted by Payton Wilmott On Thursday, July 16, 2015 0 comments



This is a review with a difference and meant for educators across the country of Jamaica. This week I had the honor of reviewing a product that is meant for learning robotics with scratch programming. The device I’m talking about is the mBot-Blue (Bluetooth Version) made by Makeblock. I’m such a geek for robotics!

What is mBot?
Maker Works Technology INC has found away to incorporate all fields of STEM education into one small inexpensive robotic device called mBot. This robotic device is available in two colors (Blue and Pink) and two versions (Bluetooth and Wi-Fi). It helps kids get a hands-on experience on mechanics, electronics, control systems and computer science. The mBot is for learning and although it is meant for kids age 10 and up, I’m a grown ass man that wants one too.
The fact is that if you are willing to learn and fascinated with robotics then you probably would have some interest in the mBot, but Makeblock also has many other robotic products on their site for more advance users.

Test Subject “A”
Amoy Boswell who is a grade 6 student from St. Georges Infant and Primary school was recruited to assemble and program the mBot. The result was astounding to say the least. She assembled the robot from scratch in 40 minutes with little to know supervision.  
After which she couldn’t hold her enthusiasm to move on to the programming stage of the exercise and see the mBot come to life. The programming stage of the mBot wasn’t hard to do, but the setup for the programming took us a little time to get right, because of some issues with a PC we had. Amoy Boswell was thought for 30 minutes how to program the mBot using graphical programming inspired by Scratch 2.0. After a small amount of trails and errors she was able to full control the mBot form the PC we were using. The remarkable part of programming the mBot is realizing how in depth you can go in coding the device or how simple it can be for a 10 year old.

Final Thoughts
The mBot is a marvelous product to initiate learning at any level of education. This small robot is just what the education sector need to stimulate STEM education in schools. The product mentioned in this article was provided by Maker Works Technology INC (Phone/Fax: +86 0755 86501196) and for more information on mBot visit http://www.makeblock.cc/mbot-blue-bluetooth-version/ or Email: info@makeblock.cc

at July 16, 2015

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