Ask HN: How do you teach robotics to a 5-year-old? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you teach robotics to a 5-year-old?

3 pointsharrylove7 comments

My son is 5 and wants to learn how to build robots. Anyone know of age-appropriate books, resources, or kits that have worked well for their kids? We're homeschooling, so curriculum tips are also appreciated.

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For a five year old who wants to build robots, I would recommend cardboard, duct tape, poster paint, encouragement, and staying out of their way.

Let them express their understanding of robots, not yours.

Yes, I agree with you, and we did that for 5 years. That's why he wants to learn how to build "real robots" now. His words, not mine. Basically he wants to learn how to make the cardboard and duct tape follow his commands. He's fascinated by the Mars Rover (and space in general) and wants to know how it all works.

I'm trying to teach him as gently as possible while still keeping the interest up. We'll probably build some cool things together that are over his head just for the wow factor, but I want to give him things he can accomplish too while we explore the fundamentals of math, physics, electricity, tools, and machines.

Lego Mindstorms. The great thing about them is that they combine both the mechanical design aspect (why use wheels or tread? what happens if the robot is too big and isn't stable enough? etc.) with the programming side of things.

For something more "pure electronics" oriented, I also highly recommend the book Junkbots, which focuses on building small robots (that do fun things) out of household items:

http://www.amazon.com/JunkBots-Bugbots-Bots-Wheels-Technolog...

I'm also aware of the Lego WeDo kits. I was under the impression that Mindstorms might be a little advanced. Is that not the case?

Never heard of the Lego WeDo. They seem new, and pretty cool, albeit pretty limited.

The nice things about the MindStorms is that they are very flexible— you can build simplistic project (a basic 4 wheel car that you can program to move around) or extremely advanced projects (people have built rubik's cube solver using mindstorms).

If your 5 year old really gets into them, he'll probably use them for years.

Aside from the lego route, you have another option.

Parallax, the basic stmap guys have a robot for beginners. Its already built and the body is covered with a plastic shell. It is programmed using basic.

Great people too.

Those look neat. Thanks for sharing.

Link to Parallax Robot Comparison Chart for reference: http://www.parallax.com/RobotComparisonChart/tabid/524/Defau...

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