KinderLab Robotics Introduces KIBO Home Edition, a Creative Coding Kit Available for the Holiday Season
For a limited time only, families can get this affordable screen-free robot toy in time for the holidays and for years of playful learning
(Waltham, MA) October 7, 2020 – Today KinderLab Robotics, the creators of the KIBO™ robot kit, announced the release of the new KIBO Home Edition line. Available for a limited time, this line was created to support parents and children during the pandemic, especially those with limitations on in-person school attendance. The KIBO Home Edition Robot Kit provides families an affordable way to bring a playful, screen-free coding and engineering toy home for the holidays and for years of creative enjoyment.
The affordable new KIBO Home Edition introduces young children to coding and robotics, inspiring parents, children, and siblings to engage and collaborate. With KIBO, children ages 4–7 create, design, decorate, and bring their own robot to life. Children build onto KIBO with familiar arts and crafts materials, engaging in imaginative play and storytelling that motivates and guides their learning. They can tell stories, choreograph dances, create a robotic vehicle to explore a cardboard town, create an animal habitat, and more.
“We’ve heard from many parents who are struggling to find new ways to keep their children engaged and excited about learning when schooling is limited or remote,” said Jason Innes, KinderLab’s Director of Curriculum, Training, and Product Management. “Unlike so many other ‘tech toys’ for young kids, KIBO is screen-free, open-ended, and creative. KIBO is based on extensive research about how young children learn abstract concepts like coding and the design process—and that’s by getting off the screen and engaging with physical toys, movement, and concrete play.”
With KIBO, kids create coding sequences using programming cards. They scan their sequence with the barcode scanner built into the robot body, press KIBO’s button, and watch their creation go! KIBO uses scannable cards rather than an app or computer for a screen-free and physically active experience. For added creativity, children can draw on KIBO’s whiteboard faceplate with markers or attach the included paper “costumes” atop the robot.
“We wanted to create a solution for families looking for hands-on toys to supplement what is happening in the classroom, during distance learning, in a homeschool environment or in a learning pod,” said Mitch Rosenberg, CEO of KinderLab Robotics. “The KIBO Home Edition offers an engaging, age-appropriate way for young children to learn complex STEAM concepts in computer science and engineering. The KIBO Home Edition makes a wonderful holiday gift for your young, inquisitive learner.”
KIBO Home Edition is available for a limited time, during the 2020 holiday season, on the KinderLab Robotics web store (limit 1 per customer).
• The KIBO 10 Home Edition, for $149, contains the KIBO robot, its wheels and motors, and scannable cards for creating KIBO programs.
• The KIBO 15 Home Edition, for $199, adds KIBO’s light bulb and sound sensor modules and additional commands, expanding the engineering and programming options, as well as a wooden art stage to enhance the storytelling and imaginative play possibilities.
The KIBO Home Edition is also fully compatible with the wide range of extensions and add-on sensors, modules, and parts available from KinderLab Robotics, so KIBO can continue to grow as the child grows.
Learn more about the KIBO Home Edition line of products.
About KIBO – The Playful STEAM Robot
KIBO is a robot kit that allows children aged 4–7 to build, program, decorate, and bring their own robot to life without requiring any screen time on a smartphone, tablet, or computer. With art and engineering, students transform KIBO into imagined animals, vehicles, storybook characters, and more. When children build, code, and decorate their own robot, they perceive it as play, but they are learning invaluable STEAM skills. Not only are these hands-on experiences inherently rewarding, but they help children understand the technology in their world and can even improve their future job prospects.
About KinderLab Robotics
KinderLab Robotics is the creator of the award-winning KIBO, a playful educational STEAM robot kit based on more than 20 years of research in learning technologies and child development by Dr. Marina Umaschi Bers at Tufts University, including testing with thousands of children, educators, and parent. KIBO has been a cornerstone of creative science, technology, engineering, art, and mathematics (STEAM) learning in homes and schools across the U.S. and internationally since 2013. KIBO is currently used in 60+ countries and has proven efficacy in helping kids learn STEAM—and getting them excited about it!
For more information, please visit KinderLabRobotics.com.
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