The Ozobots are smaller-than-a-golf-ball-sized robots that can be used to teach the fundamentals of coding. Codes can be drawn by hand or created using a free iPad app (iPad not included, sorry!).

See more how-to videos from Ozobot…

Due to the hefty price tag on these little guys, supervised play is required.

Ages: I’d assume that third grade and older would be appropriate. I had one in my purse at lunch and showed a little guy of about 5 years old how it danced around the code. He was entranced — but was a little rough with it and desperately wanted to keep it.

Tips:

From Liz:

I noticed that it has a hard time reading the green sharpie – a thinner green sharpie or green crayola usually works.

I also used graph paper – this helped kids make a thick-enough line (they made lines the width of a square) and also helped make sure their code was precise (one square for each color, etc).  If you do this you need to calibrate the Ozobot to a big black dot on the graph paper instead of the regular calibration card.

Read Tom’s post for more tips:
http://nhlibraries.org/makerplay/2015/10/ozobots-at-play-at-the-stratford-library/

Ozobot Codes:
http://www.ozobot.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Ozobot-OzoCodes-Reference.pdf

Ozobot Game Zone: Code Instructions & Printable Tracks
http://www.ozobot.com/gamezone/