Educational Insights Artie 3000 The Coding Robot: Drawing STEM Robot Toys For Kids Boys And Girls, Classroom Must Haves, Ages 7+

My father became a computer programmer in the early 80s, so I’ve been around computers since I could remember - when I told him about this little robot he was skeptical but intrigued. I had him help my children (ages 10, 8, 5 and 4) set it up and go, and we were ALL impressed.First, Artie is adorable; not necessary for function, but definitely worth a mention. Setup is a breeze, and although we didn’t need it I later saw the quick setup video tutorial which easily shows the steps so much that my 8 year old could have gotten it up and running. Truly the most difficult part was unscrewing the battery compartment, which wasn’t too bad. I also really appreciate that although he comes with a few felt tip markers we can use almost any without worrying about stocking up on specialized markers or hoping that they don’t discontinue the product and subsequently the accessories. This has happened more times than I can count and I truly appreciate the flexibility.The user interface is simple but backed by powerful commands when you see what Artie is capable of executing. All 4 of my children have loved having this as an addition to our educational toys, and I’m an artist so I love having the combination of coding with creativity. It was amazing to see how much my older daughters already new from their schools STEM and Maker Space activities, and how quickly my younger children adapted to the coding principles.We absolutely LOVE this little guy, he’s a welcomed addition to our family computer and homework area, ready to go whenever we are ready to experiment.

My 8-year-old daughter LOVES Artie. The instructions that come in the box are pretty minimal. I highly recommend going to the website and watching the quick setup videos. For us, the set up was easy. We were able to connect to Artie’s wifi and get to the coding website with no problem. Our Artie didn’t need calibration - worked great out of the box! We’re using him on a hard floor. The drag and drop website definitely works best on a computer. It’s much harder to use on a phone - some of the controls get cut off on the phone, and my daughter kept accidentally moving the code commands when she was just trying to scroll, which was frustrating. All those problems went away on the computer. It might work ok on a tablet; we didn’t try that.The coding website has some fun, basic drawings pre-programmed, which is great for instant gratification. There are also instructions in the box for coding basic shapes. Once you know the basics, you can code your own designs. In the picture, you can see that my daughter (with a little help from Dad on getting the angles right) coded Artie to write her name. The mandala was a pre-programmed design.You might want some larger pieces of paper to keep Artie from going off onto the table or floor. Taping the paper down definitely helps!All in all, fun, great value for the money, and a creative way to introduce kids to coding basics.

Artie 3000 is a cool drawing coding robot. He comes with setup instruction, 4 markers, marker aligner and 3 activity sheets. He requires four AA batteries and a computer or tablet to run the coding interface.You insert the marker in a compartment on top of his head. You use a plastic circular piece to help guide how far to insert the marker. Put a piece of paper on surface. Make sure you tape the paper on the corners so it doesn’t slide when Artie runs.The recommended age for this toy is 7 to 12. Our 6 year old needed help from our 10 year old. It was much easier for our 10 year kid to code and run it.We connected to Artie on our iPad Air and then went to coding interface. The coding interface and Artie can be a bit quirky at times so we had to retry here and there.In order to do the letters and numbers you will need to upload additional files. These are available on Educational Insight website for computer or on the interface for tablet. There is a stimulator mode on the interface that allows you to test out your code before running Artie.Our kids were able to make Artie draw shapes, patterns, mazes, letters and numbers. Overall, it’s a fun toy to learn to code while making art. It’s cool for kids to see the actual result with their own eyes.One area to improve is to give Artie the ability to retract the marker when he is waiting for coding instructions. Right now he creates a big blob (dot) on the paper while he is in wait mode. The only way to prevent this is to tilt him on his side and put him upright when the kids are ready to run the code.

From first opening the box, this is a great experience! Artie is super cute, and the packaging and support materials are high quality and good looking. The Quick Start guide is handy, and the numbered lessons are guiding us to what we can do and how to make the magic happen.It really does seem magical to be using this drag and drop code, and then watching our little robot follow our instructions to draw on paper right in front of our eyes. It’s like the code comes to life!The lessons are set up from easy to more advanced, so even if you don’t know how to code, it’s a great way to learn. It was really easy to follow the directions, and the pre-set projects were really cool too! Those don’t even take any coding – they’re just selected from a pull-down menu, press go and watch Artie draw. These inspired us to try even more advanced moves.The price is lower than competition, but there was no skimping in the product. How did they do it? I highly recommend the Artie 3000 for curious kids who want some real fun, real world experience with coding.

This product was a Christmas gift for my 8 year old and it was very difficult for her to use.