The Sphero SPRK Edition, which launched today from Sphero, is an app-enabled, teachable robot ball designed to sharpen kids’ math and science skills, and unleash their imaginations through a library of more than 30 free apps.
SPRK began as a local meet-up group to teach kids how to program Sphero. One year later, Sphero launched the SPRK program to provide coding lessons to teachers and students.
Using the SPRK app, users program their Sphero through visual blocks representing code, based on the company’s own C-based language, Oval. Simple commands such as roll, flip, spin, and color change can be combined to create complex instructions for the robot to follow.
Between the app and the ball’s visible insides, users can see the connection between the programs they create and how the guts of Sphero work and react to them. Meanwhile, through the process of combining commands and seeing the code for themselves, kids acquire a foundation they can use to learn more about programming.