Review on 🤖 Enhance Coding Skills with the Educational Insights Artie Robot by David Barit

Artie 3000 is a cool drawing and coding robot. It comes with assembly instructions, 4 markers, a marker aligner and 3 activity sheets. It requires four AA batteries and a computer or tablet to run the coding interface. You put the marker in the compartment on the top of his head. You use the round piece of plastic to indicate how far to insert the marker. Place a piece of paper on the surface. Make sure to tape paper around the corners so it stays in place when Artie runs. The recommended age for this toy is between 7 and 12 years old. Our 6 year old needed the help of our 10 year old. It was much easier for our 10 year old to code and run. We connected to Artie on our iPad Air and then moved on to the coding interface. The coding interface and Artie can be a little quirky at times, so we had to give it another try here and there. To write letters and numbers you need to download additional files. They are available on the Educational Insight website for the desktop or tablet interface. The interface has a stimulator mode that allows you to test your code before running Artie. Our kids could get Artie to draw shapes, patterns, mazes, letters and numbers. Overall, this is a fun toy to learn how to code while creating art. It's great for kids to see the actual result with their own eyes. One area that needs improvement is giving Artie the ability to remove the marker when waiting for coding instructions. Right now it creates a big blob (dot) on the paper while idle. The only way to prevent this is to tip it on its side and stand upright when the kids are ready to run the code.