STEM & STEAM

Pitsco Expands Robotics Catalog

• By Dian Schaffhauser
• 04/15/19

STEM kit seller Pitsco Education has introduced a new line of robotics and coding products for its K-12 classroom catalog. Those include:

• UKITs, from robot maker UBTECH Education, which come in three flavors: beginner for elementary classrooms, intermediate for middle school and advanced for high school. Each set provides snap-together components (including servos) to create structures and robots that can be run with the company's free app that teaches coding and 3D design and offers lessons based on the Next Generation Science Standards;

• Sets from Arduino Education, including a classroom starter kit bundle for programming and electronics and an engineering kit to help students learn the basics, including mechatronics and MATLAB and Simulink programming;

• KUBO Robotics' KUBO Coding and Coding+ sets, which use the TagTile coding robot to introduce coding concepts in a screen-free way to students in grades pre-K-5;

• The Fable Robot modular construction set from Shape Robotics, for use in grades 6-12, which can be programmed using visual programming language Blockly or Python; and

• STEM MIX Kits from Microduino, which teach students in grades 4-9 about electronic circuitry, coding and product design.

Pitsco already sells its own TETRIX Robots systems, for students in grades 6-12. These are competition-grade and can be used by teams who intend to compete in contests such as the FIRST Tech Challenge.

"Lines of codes might be the least important outcome of coding, and an assembled bot is not the end of a robotics classroom activity," said Stephan Turnipseed, chief strategy officer of Pitsco, in a statement. "Coding and robotics represent a fantastic opportunity for teachers to help their students focus on learning in a way that is meaningful and fun.