Snapino

I really, really want the kids to learn to be makers.  Sooo.... I purchased 3 Sparkfun Inventor kits and proceeded to teach them how to wire a bread board LED and program it using the Arduino IDE.  It turned out to be a complete disaster.  The kids ages 7, 8, 10 at the time came to hate it.  Stepping back I tried to figure out why.  First it turned out to be way to fiddly for kids that age.  By time we had wired the bread board to the Arduino, connected it to the computer and tried to program it from the Arduino IDE something inevitably went wrong.  The kids didn't have enough basic knowledge yet to debug the system.  So it became mom came in and magically fixed things.  Maria in frustration when we got her LED blinking that I did it for her and she had no clue how to do it herself, disgust and disappointment followed.  Second it was "school" work, they couldn't see how they could use it to play with.  

When I ran across the Snapino I instantly thought, wow this would be an excellent way to have the kids wire an Arduino without the fiddliness of having to wire a bread bread board.  Wiring up the Snapino was a snap (pun intended).  It connected to the computer and the Arduino IDE without a problem.  I went looking for a Scratch like programming environment and found mBlock.  mBlock can be used to program the Arduino using a visual programming environment.  Success from fiddliness was achieved.  The kids are now able learn how to program an Arduino and use electronic components with easy to use tools.  

Snapino is a nice introduction to Arduino and basic electronics that solves the fiddliness factor that tends to make the initial efforts in programing and electronics have such a steep learning curve. The combination of Snapino and mBlock is a great way to introduce microcontrollers, electronics, and programming.