Support for KIBO
Here at KinderLab Robotics, it’s been an amazing trip. From our successful Kickstarter launch, setting up the manufacturing of KIBO in Massachusetts, launching our online store, and attending events – it’s been a whirlwind.
Yet through all the changes we’re going through as a team, there’s one consistency that stays strong: the support for KIBO.
If you’re not familiar with it, KIBO is our robot kit for four to seven-year olds. Don’t think that this is a mere toy. Yes, it looks cute and fun, but KIBO teaches young children the fundamentals of programming through intuitive, age- and developmentally-appropriate technology. KIBO has a building instruction set that controls the actions of the robot by creating programs, or lines of code, using wooden blocks. Each block represents an action for the robot, so children can slot the blocks together to build a program and to control KIBO’s motion and sounds. After building the program with the easy-to-handle wooden blocks, the child simply scans the sequence of blocks with the robot body, then presses a single button to start KIBO – and off it goes!
KIBO can also be decorated and personalized, so children can express their creativity. We find this bridges a key gap – in the KIBO-world we know that technology, programming and creativity are all about open-ended play. So we designed KIBO to support the development of children’s cognitive, social, emotional and motor skills.
We all know that robots are fun. KIBO combines fun, math, science, technology, expression and creativity.
We don’t want to change the world. We want to change how people – parents, teachers – all adults really, think about how children should be learning about programming, logic, math and technology.
This week we’re at the Maker’s Faire in New York City. If you’re going to be in the area, register here for a ticket and be sure to come by and say hello to KIBO!
