In today’s technologically advanced world, robotics has become an integral part of our lives, offering innovative solutions and endless possibilities. Among the myriad of STEM toys and gadgets out there for kids today, one stands out to us for the unique way it blends creativity, fun, and educational value: Sphero Blueprint. I recently had the opportunity to check out the modular engineering system for middle school and high school kids who want to create, and have ideas in their head they can finally build in the real world. Geniuses are made by letting kids create without interruption, sometimes for hours on end, and here is a tool (I hesitate to say toy because it’s not a toy, but it is fun) where they can really unleash their desire to build, explore, try new things and see how they work, and learn as they go. There are blueprints to direct them to start (especially if they never built anything with modular systems before) and once they get the hang of it, they can keep going with their own experiments and ideas, or try to figure things out on their own from the start. It is fabulous!
Sphero has established itself as a leading name in the field of robotic toys, and the nature of Sphero Blueprint allows them to create new things that are scalable and reproducible, so it can have applications outside of just fun at home. Some other Sphero products that have been very popular with both kids and adults include remote-controlled robots; the spherical Sphero BOLT is their best-selling bot and teaches kids coding while they learn (even beginners can learn to code and create it), and now they’ve gone beyond by offering tools for your mini engineers-in-the-making, kids who just love to build, create, and make things. You can pre-order the Sphero Blueprint for afternoons of relaxed creating (it will ship this fall) and let their minds roam as they explore all the pieces, conceptualize novel gadgets, and produce new machinery that are their own unique creations.
Sphero Blueprint boasts an impressive array of building capabilities, with many unique design pieces to create functional mechanisms. It would definitely nurture a passion in children to unleash their imaginations by allowing them to undertake challenging projects without anyone directing them or critiquing them (two things that very much diminish a kid’s desire to learn and do)… just set it out and let them navigate at their own pace- they will learn physics and all the engineering rules of simple machines just by playing around and trying configurations out (and learning while playing and having fun is the type of learning that actually sticks). Children are great learners on their own (interference actually stifles this) and middle school and high school kids are able to think outside the box and put things together in very interesting ways, as long as there is no pressure of assignments, a due date, or anyone watching and “suggesting”… seriously, just let them have a lot of free time and prepare to be impressed by what they can create ♥️
Sphero Blueprint is a wonderful educational tool for students who are inclined toward STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics), and being able to directly build with their own hands encourages them to try new things and troubleshoot as they go to examine spacial creations with no wrong answers. Who knows what they can create? My son was experimenting with the components of the Sphero Blueprint Kit, sometimes looking at pictures that were included to try out, and other times just trying new things to see how things work (troubleshooting his own way through new unique contraptions that were actually pretty cool looking), and he’s loving it!
