It’s Mirobot, a small, wifi robot designed to be assembled and programmed by kids. Ben Pirt got the idea on a visit to the Science Museum in London with his family. There he re-encountered a turtle robot from the 1970s and decided it was time for an update.
here’s Mirobot equipped with a pen for drawing
Pirt recently ran a wildly successful kickstarter campaign, so expect these kits–aimed at ages 8 and above– to be on the market soon.
Yes they should! Science should be written in a language that everyone can understand. That’s the idea of Professor Robert Knight, at the University of California, who has started a new scientific journal on brain research where kids from 8-15 are involved in reviewing the articles for publication.
Knight and his team at Frontiers in Neuroscience for Young Minds are on a mission to “engage the next wave of scientists.” They see the benefit in bringing kids into the process of scientific research while also gaining input for scientist who want to reach a broad audience.
a popular article from Frontiers in Neuroscience for Young Minds
A more detailed review says that kids involved to date are aged from 5 to 16 years old, and some of the initial articles include:Facebook, being cool and your brain: what science tells us
The scientific significance of sleep talking
As science officer Spock would say, “Fascinating.”
Here at Kids Future Press we’re interested in how art and design (represented by the letter A), combined with STEM (for science, technology, engineering and math) make STEAM and can bring sustainable futures to life in picture books for kids.
Robert Sobuda’s template for making your own popups
On the blog we also like to explore activities and projects that compliment books, and today we visit Robert Sobuda’s website where you can find downloadable templates for making your own pop-up cards in shapes such as hearts, animals or flowers. As Amy Koester, of The Library as Incubator Project, writes, adding popups to the gradeschool art project of making Valentine’s, Easter, or mother’s day cards helps these projects deliver a basic engineering experience.
In another article, Amy writes that it’s useful to think about “engineering” as a fancy term for “making” or even “crafting.” Paper airplanes, lego buildings or popup cards all offer approachable ways to introduce kids to engineering. And she mentions the importance of testing your creations and having a chance to make adjustments and experiment.
Try the popups and let us know in the comments how it goes. Pass this post on to others who might like it.