I had a chance to play with and photograph the Fisher-Price Think & Learn Code-a-pillar this Christmas.
It's a cool educational toy that lets kids, and slightly older folks like me, develop basic programming skills by connecting a series of plug-n-play caterpillar segments to perform a customized set of sequential actions.
In addition to the motorized caterpillar control head, there are segments that:
- go straight,
- turn right,
- turn left,
- stop and play a sound, and
- expansion segments that light up, turn 180/360 degrees, etc.
Once connected in the sequence of your choice, a press of the start button sends the Code-a-pillar on its way, complete with sounds and plenty of blinking lights.
In additional to plain old fun, the goal is to teach critical thinking, sequential programming, and motor skills by re-arranging the order in which the segments are connected.
It was a fun toy to play around with and I'm sure that the Code-a-pillar could be a gateway to bigger and better things like learning to program Merkle trees and all things crypto and blockchain related ππ½
DISCLAIMER: I'm not employed by Fisher-Price, I'm not getting compensated by them, and this Steemit post is not an endorsement of this product. I just thought it was cool toy to play with!!!
All images @cognoscere (Sony RX100 V)
That's a cool little toy. I've not seen it in stores here in Australia
Yeah, first time I'd seen it as well.
ive seen it in store wheil shopping for kids to get em some toys. didnt think it was fun tho.. so seems i should have watched it slower
I think for the age range of 3-6 it's appropriate and it's pretty cool. It kept me occupied for a little while too, and got me to take those photos ;-)
That's a fun toy.....I would have purchased that one for an age appropriate grandchild....and had fun playing with it myself :)
Yeah it was fun to play with! The only thing I didn't like was that it can't really cope with obstacles in its path. So part of the fun is in trying to get it to turn appropriately and circumvent the obstacles.
Cognitive training! lol.....sounds like you had fun with it....that's the important thing.
That looks like great fun, and an interesting learning toy. Reminds me of a fish I had on my work-desk, but all it did was light up, make noise, and waggle at me, to cognitively suggest I get back to work. Thanks for the post.
That's really cool to get kids programming really early on.