I would like to teach my kids coding. They are 13 and 16 years old and I would like to know which tools or kids I should buy knowing that they have a laptop. I really do not understand why should I get the coding kit such as the Raspberry PI 4 or the KANO kit of they are basically computers and I have a laptop that could do the job.
I am really confused which kits or tools I should buy to get my kids like coding. Can you please help and explain to me about the kits and whether they are better than the laptop?
Do you have products suggestions? I would be so much thankful for your detailed reply.
Hello @khalidal and welcome to the RobotShop community!
It is great that you want your kids to start learning how to program!
In order to understand why is it better to use a single-board computer like the Raspberry Pi or a microcontroller like the Arduino instead of using a laptop for learning how to code and start experimenting with electronics you would need to know the differences between them. I found this article that explains it very well.
Different kinds of computers are designed for different purposes. The computer at the heart of your laptop is optimized for different purposes than the one in your phone or the one in your mouse. The simplest computers are those that are designed to take inout from the physical world and control output devices in the physical world. These are called microcontrollers.
Most electronic devices you use today have a microcontroller at their core. Microcontrollers are optimized for control of general input and output. They’re generally less computationally capable than the processors used in multimedia computers or servers, for example. They require less power than a those other processors, and they’re easier to interface with the physical world through input circuits called sensors and output circuits called actuators . They can communicate with other processors through various communication interfaces.
Those are some of the cool aspects that microcontrollers offer and a regular computer doesn’t. You can interface those boards with different sensors, which is something you can’t do with your laptop (unless you use USB sensors or adapters). Another cool thing about programming with microcontrollers is that their size allows you to use it for portable projects, like building a wheeled or hexapod robot (which are really attractive projects for kids and teenagers). And finally, one of the most attractive aspects is that there are lots of cool projects specially design for kids and teenagers.
