Thanks to the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, regular schooling is on hold across the world. But that’s not enough reason to put your child’s learning process to a halt, especially with STEAM lessons. With Makeblock’s new product, you can at least allow your child to access STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Art, and Mathematics) education from the comfort of your home.
Makeblock has already launched a crowdfunding campaign for its latest product, NextMaker Box, on Kickstarter. With less than 2 weeks to go, the crowdfunding project has managed to fund over $162,000.00 against the fixed goal of $20,000.00.
About NextMaker Box
NextMaker box is a monthly education subscription box for children between the age of 7 and 12. While the market provides numerous coding lessons and STEM boxes for children, few combine programming concepts and real-world robotics concepts. Such combinations offer children tangible and interactive learning technology for open-ended and limitless creativity.
NextMaker Box promises to offer both of these worlds by providing both software and hardware tools for your child to learn to code at their own pace. Its learning options are endless, including building robots, smart devices for home use, and game controllers. While developing long-life skills is the ultimate goal, your child will also have so much fun when they experience their handiwork results.
The NextMaker Box includes sensors, motors, raw materials, and mechanical parts that will spark a passion for technology and allow kids to learn and create items while having fun. The included colorful paints and stickers enable kids to customize their creations. It also comes with a 3-hour online coding course plus interactive step-by-step activities for coding.
By using the NextMaker Box, your child will learn:
- Artificial intelligence
- Advanced robotics
- Block-based programming
- Data science
- Human-computer interaction
- Internet of things
Unfortunately, there are multiple boxes for different projects aligned with CSTA coding program. These range from 1 to 12. For example, Box 1 – 3 are CSTA 1A focussing on sequencing, event, voice sensor, LED Gyroscope, and music creation. Boxes 4 – 6 are also CSTA 1A but instead focuses on function, variables, conditionals, range sensor, game design, and gear transmission.
NextMaker Box is currently selling at $39.00 for early bird pledges, and a Kickstarter price of $49.00 for box 1, and the estimated delivery is December 2020. The early bird price for Box 1-3 is $99.00, while the Kickstarter price is $129.00, with estimated delivery for February 2021. For the comprehensive NextMaker Box of boxes 1-12, early bird and Kickstarter prices are $389.00 and $449.00 with estimated delivery of February 2021.
There are other options in the market if you don’t want to wait. Kaplan and Amazon offer multiple solutions for coding and robotics, blocks, and building materials, among others.
About Makeblock
Makeblock Co., Ltd is an education solution provider that targets STEAM education and entertainment for education institutions, families, and schools. The company achieves this by providing hardware, robotics, software, and content solution products for deeper integration of education and technology. It was founded in 2013 by Jasen Wang and has won multiple global awards in industrial design.
