Lego Education launches Spike Prime to teach engineering and robotics to kids | Entertainment - Space.com

Lego Education is launching a new line to teach engineering and robotics concepts to kids in a celebration of sorts for the STEAM-focused toy division's 40th anniversary.

Photo: Future/Gia Sergovich

Called Spike Prime, the new education system is aimed at students ages 10 and up, from sixth to eighth grade. Lego Education, an education-focused division of the iconic building toy manufacturer, first announced the system last April and is rolling it out today (Jan. 14). 

"Essentially, it is a Lego kit," Sid Muthyala, a senior concept designer for Spike Prime, told Space.com. "It's a tool box with a lot of Lego elements, a lot of bricks to build with. What we're adding to the set, along with the physical tools, is the hardware."...

Those challenges can range from building a "Weather Guy" robot, complete with sunglasses and an umbrella, and linking it with weather data from different cities, to programming a robot to dance on command using colored bricks. There are also sensors that can track color, distance and pressure to allow kids to design robots with different functions.

Some building challenges include a handheld grabber tool, a grasshopper-like insect, a rhino-like pressure sensor bot and  —  my personal favorite  —  a breakdancing robot that can move its hips, legs and arms separately depending on how students program it. But each of the lesson plans is designed to take about 45 minutes, including time for cleaning up. 
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Source: Space.com