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  • Author Author: ahaney01
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BOSON Starter Kit + micro:bit - Review

ahaney01

Table of contents

RoadTest: BOSON Starter Kit + micro:bit

Author: ahaney01

Creation date:

Evaluation Type: Test Equipment

Did you receive all parts the manufacturer stated would be included in the package?: True

What other parts do you consider comparable to this product?:

What were the biggest problems encountered?: The biggest problem with this product was the task cards. I love the idea and the easy of reading through them but, the code provides was out of date and there is no support for updating the cards.

Detailed Review:

Upon the first impression the boson starter kit + micro:bit was amazing!  There are lots of potential in this kit and it provided excitement with the possibilities to do so much without the need to solder. The ability for instant results makes this kit well worth the money.  Lights, fans, motors, are just a few things that can be made quickly and engage the learner.  This offers a great springboard for learning about microcontrollers and circuits. Coding was a bit challenging as the mirco:bits platform had been updated and there was no way to update the task cards.  With a little reading and problem solving coding issues were resolved.  This offers higher order thinking for beginners and is best used for students ages 9 - 99.

Anonymous

  • This must be a mistake ...

    I love the idea and the easy of reading through them but, the code provides was out of date and there is no support for updating the cards.

    Presumably this is why the low score for Support materials were available =1.

     

     

    I would have expected an educator with so much pasison for robotics and coding to be a little more informative given the comments in the profile.

     

    who creatively teaches coding, robotics, and engineering design in my advanced classes ....

    I also have a deep desire to build and design BEAM robots. My hope to to teach students how to make, create, hack, design, and think in a manner that is much different than most students. Problem solvers use the world around them to find the answers. That is what I want to teach and engineer in its rawest form allows me to do so. I teach the creative design process which morphs into the engineering design process. We keep design notebooks full of research, brainstorming, sketches, budgets, prototypes, collected data, notes about the projects, all the components necessary to recreate the project we are currently working on. I often say to my students " I will teach you to make this look good and then to engineer it."

     

    Whenever I apply for a RT I always check the item and do some homework BEFORE even sending in a submission.

    In this case not everything may have been available, but I'm sure it would have highlighted the capabilities of the item.

     

    Mark

  • Have a look at some of the reviews that the people who commented above have written. This will give you an idea of what people are expecting from a RoadTest review. Yours is very disappointing. I was interested in finding out how the Boson kit worked as a way of combining the micro:bit with Lego, but you didn’t even mention Lego.

  • in reply to luislabmo

    Makes me wonder what the proposal was ...

     

    - Gough

  • I think someone thought this was about writing a one-line-review like the ones found at amazon instead of conducting a proper Road Test.

  • Do you have any commentary on the tests you conducted and what software issues you found?

    You claim you resolved those issues, I am sure the members would like to know what they were and what you did to fix them.

     

    DAB