Ozobot[1], a golf-ball sized toy robot that helps kids learn to code, will be available in the form of Guardians of the Galaxy and Spider-Man characters as of this summer. Evollve Inc., which makes the Ozobot, has previously offered character skins from Disney’s Marvel Avengers, including Iron Man and Captain America.
The startup’s CEO Nader Hamda[2] said: “We want to inspire kids to learn to create with technology and not just to consume it. Licensing helps us engage with a mass population and connect with kids who may not already have an interest in technology.”
Ozobots can follow the lines that kids draw on white paper with regular markers. Certain colors send a command to the Ozobot to spin, speak or flash lights. Kids string together lines like they would write lines of code. The toy robots can work offline but users have the option to control them through the Ozobot mobile app. Within that app, users can write programs to control their own, or each other’s robots.
The company’s Guardian of the Galaxy Starter Pack and Spider-Man Starter Kit will cost $59.95. Each pack includes an Ozobot Bit (the basic robot), 2 character skins, a book of coloring and coding activities, markers, stickers, a USB charging cable and Marvel-themed “pop-outs.” They will launch officially at Disney’s D23 Expo on July 14 in Anaheim, Calif.
Ozobot Guardians of the Galaxy Starter Kit with Groot and Rocket character skins.
Educators use Ozobot to teach coding and art classes, of course, but to other subject matter, too. For example, math teachers use Ozobot to teach kids to use coordinates and quadrants on a graph; and history and geography teachers ask kids to use Ozobot to...