And a thick cardboard protractor is included to help determine angle measurements when you program your robot. Kids can see a neat exploded diagram that shows how the Sphero is built, for example. The new Sphero SPRK also includes new packaging which extends the learning to the mundane act of pulling out your new round robot. OVAL simply provides a path for kids who want to evolve from block programming to other languages. However, coding your Sphero with OVAL is not required. Kids can learn to program the robot with blocks then evolve to coding with OVAL which, in turn, can help familiarize them with how C, C++, Python, Ruby, and other languages work.
Now you can program your Sphero with blocks or text-based code.
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OVAL lets you write code to directly control your Sphero robot with a few robot-specific changes to the C language. What does C based mean? C is a programming language that connects directly to the 1s and 0s your computer uses to do things. The updated Sphero SPRK app also includes OVAL, a C based programming language. MacroLab has been renamed to Sphero SPRK and updated to make it even easier to drag and drop blocks to program the robot. Recently, Sphero launched Sphero SPRK edition based on over a year of experience with tens of thousands of kids, teachers, and parents.
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SPRK Education included the cute round robot and a few software tools including MacroLab, software to program the robot’s behavior, as well as lesson plans and an online community to share experiences and help others. In April 2014, Sphero launched SPRK Education to support teachers, parents, and kids using Sphero to learn programming, robotics, and math in a fun interactive way.
The small size of the Sphero robot and ease of programming makea it perfect for kids, schools, and families. Programming Sphero is more hands on with immediate feedback from the robot.
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Unlike programming with a computer and keyboard, to program a Sphero robot you use an iPhone or Android Sphero SPRK app to drag blocks, specify what the robot will do when it processes the block, and then order your blocks to make Sphero perform the actions in order. Getting your Sphero started also is fun: you tap on it two times to wake it up, as in, “Knock, knock! Anyone home?” Then your Sphero lights up to let you know it’s ready to go. It has taken a few weeks of trial and error but these 3rd graders conquered planet revolution! /Ebo84vFr4S Kids see an abstract idea - planets orbit around the sun in different paths at different rates - operate on the floor in front of them. For example, at least one science teacher uses Spheros to replicate the orbits of planets around the sun, with each Sphero planet programmed to make a circuit identical to a real planet. The Sphero robot is fun for kids and fits well into school curriculums. If you have not seen Sphero, it’s a small hand-sized ball you can program easily to change colors, run a circuit, keep beat with a song, and many other fun ideas. The new Sphero SPRK Edition makes it even easier for teachers, parents, and kids to learn math, robotics, and programming.