Makeblock NextMaker STEM Toys, 3-in-1 Coding Kit for Kids 6-12, Science Kit Learning & Education Toys STEM Project for Boys & Girls to Learn Coding Engineering Electronics, Fingertip Piano - Box 1

The media could not be loaded.  We really enjoyed this kit! My 12 year old was able to complete this kit independently… As long as I wasn’t interrupting because it looked so fun! It had several different lessons they could do to learn about coding and just some general wiring of electronics. I think this was a great tool to get kids experimenting with these areas. Experimenting is really where they learn! “Let’s change this part and see what happens.” The online app steps them through the process of learning what capabilities there are and then they can experiment more on their own. It even has them interact a bit with their home environment by trying to find conductive materials around the house. The lessons teach you how to make things happen on the screen as well as lights and sounds on the device itself. There is a joystick, two buttons, and touchpads to use as input to interact with the program.We also really enjoyed the videos at the end of each lesson that gave more understanding to what’s happening— better understanding the logic structures the kids are using. Since I am a computer programmer, I found it interesting to see how they used these videos to help the kids understand.My son has experience with other coding kits such as the mBot. While I am sure this experience helped him, I’m also quite sure that it wouldn’t be necessary. The lessons go through step-by-step. He did jump ahead at times due to his prior experience. I am sure even young kids would be able to follow these instructions!One note about the dough that comes with it: It is an air dry dough so if you leave it out, it can only be used one time. However if you use some Press and Seal wrap around it, it lasts quite a while. I just checked one from two months ago and it’s still wet.Also, we were able to install this app on windows 10 without any issues. As mentioned we have used other Makeblock Devices in the past so it may be that some of the parts were already installed. Honestly I was surprised at how easily he got it up and going!

Spent some time trying to get the device detected on the computer properly. With the drivers installed as administrator the mblock IDE shows it as connected but trying to push code through Live or Upload results in no response. I'd recommend trying it out on your computer immediately so you can return it in time as well as so you don't have disappointed kids looking forward to something that doesn't actually work.

My oldest son loved this kit. We use this for homeschool and we are learning how to code. The install was easy and the lessons went smooth. It had great step by step directions and my son is already excited about getting another kit.

I have ordered Makeblock through their original website with a 12 month subscription. The product is good-my son liked it at first but then did get bored after awhile. Be warned though that if you want to get a subscription through them, they have terrible customer support. We moved to another state and I asked them months ahead of time to hold our shipments or at least change the address. Despite asking this and they responding that they would do this, they have continued to ship these to my old address for the last 2 months and I still have 2 months left on it. I have repeatedly contacted them and they won’t actually fix the problem. Since I paid a 12 month subscription ahead of time, I could not get our money back and they won’t give a refund. Do NOT extend your use of their product outside of Amazon’s protection. Makeblock won’t bother to help you.

This course takes a kid step by step through fun activities to teach how to code. There is very little in the box, but all are very necessary components. The important part is the course. The code to start it is in the box. It's a really great course and engaging and fun for kids in addition to being educational.

I have done a few of these kinds of internet of things kits that use block coding from several companies. Something I hadn't realized at first, but eventually realized is that the Scratch block coding that powers this is actually a visual way of coding in Python. Scratch is a visual interface for Python code. Eventually, in doing tutorials like this, you will interact with Python code. (The NextMaker coding console lets you go from Scratch to Python, but the tutorials that come with this box 1 don't have you go that far, and are pretty basic.) Anyway, when I realized that about Scratch leading to Python, I got much more excited about the little kids coding kits, because it's not just teaching abstract thinking. It's also teaching code.Now for this kit: Overall, I don't think it's very good. The actual physical parts of the kit seem fine. The presentation in the box is fine. The instructions are terrible, though, and are missing steps. I think if you haven't already done several similar little codey type kits, then it's going to be almost impossible to do this one just because there are so many missing steps and even the small printed instructions that tell you to log into a website and download something are wrong (tells you to download the wrong thing). I realize that this series of boxes is funded by a kick starter, and that this Box 1 kit has just been released. Most of the instructions are online on the website, and maybe those are so bad and missing steps because it's a new release. Maybe they will add the missing steps later. But, as of today, if you order this, you are setting yourself up for frustration. I had all these stalls where a step didn't work, and I would realize they completely left out a step that it builds on. Like you will have to change a software setting, or add a library of commands to their console they have you install, and they don't tell you to add that library of commands. I was looking at their screenshots and trying to find why things were different and looking through all these settings - many stalls from missing steps in the instructions.The kit - physical parts: The kit comes laid out in a large box that has the parts in smaller boxes inside. It's to where even after you assemble things - like pop the plastic case onto the chip - you can still fit the parts back in the box. That's nice and fairly unusual. Other coding kits I have gotten (from Tynker and Kano) are to where getting parts back in the box they came in is flat out impossible. The parts all seem sturdy enough and quality is fine. You get: a chip, a clear plastic case that goes on the chip, and a USB cable to power the chip. Then it comes with some copper strips and some colored clay. The instructions never have you use the copper strips and clay, but I'm assuming that you would use those to connect the circuits (GND, 1, 2, 3, 4) at the bottom of the chip, and then use the clay to make big kid friendly buttons that the child can touch to work the "piano" keys.How the physical kit works: You install a MakeBlock console on your computer which you do the coding from. It can do block coding or Python. For block coding, you also install on it the library for fingertip piano. You plug the chip into your computer to power it (and to talk to the MakeBlock console that it has you install). It does have a 4 pin connector that you could plug a battery pack into, if you have one, but it doesn't come with an external battery pack. It can talk to the MakeBlock software either through the USB plugged to the computer or through Bluetooth (Bluetooth is supported through the MakeBlock console). The chip that comes has a few sensors on it. Instructions have you step through triggering each sensor, then using block code to make each sensor change the color of a single LED light. Here are some sensors: Motion sensor. It can detect if you pass your hand over it. Joystick. The big black button is a joystick where the black button slides on the silvery square behind it and can detect being up, down, left, right. Two A and B buttons. These are the smaller buttons on the right half of the chip. GND, 1, 2, 3, 4. You can touch GND, then touch any one of the numbers to make a circuit and it will detect that. For each of these sensors/buttons/circuit, you can program it to detect that and to do a behavior. The behaviors are all to control the LED light. You can set RGB color for it, and can set a brightness.Quality of the tutorial/lesson that comes with the kit: This was terrible, because it leaves out steps. NextMaker and MakeBlock are established companies and as far as I could find MakeBlock is legit, has been around for a while, and has a good reputation. These monthly boxes, of which the finger piano is box 1 of a series, are a new product line that just launched like in the past month. I am hoping that instructions are bad because they put together the box, engineers played with it and made sure the parts were fun, and then the instructions are on a website, so they rushed those and will clean them up later. The actual parts that mail out seem fine. The tutorials on the website are terrible. In the big picture, there are missing steps over and over to where there were long stalls while I tried to fill in the blanks. Like I said, I've done coding kits before, so I kind of knew what to look for. But if this had been my first, I would have not been able to finish. For my son, who is 7 and almost 8, I don't think he could do it, mostly because the instructions leaving out steps or even saying to do the wrong thing. Essentially, if you are looking for a first kit, treat this one like it doesn't come with instructions at all. Can you deal with that? If not, then skip this, or maybe check back more recent reviews to see whether NextMaker and MakeBlock got back later and add instructions.Here's a blow-by-blow of missing instructions:Problem: The printed instructions tell you to go to the NextMaker website and install the "e-learning portal". There isn't anything on the NextMaker website called "e-learning portal". Instead, what you have to download and install is called "mBlock – Block-based coding editor". I was able to get to it by going to NextMaker, clicking "Get Started", and then looking for a coding console download. I was a little unsure that I had found the correct thing to download, since the printed instructions say to install something else, but later in the tutorial some of the videos showing the screen confirmed that I had the correct thing. It would have been better if the printed instructions in the box told me the correct name of what I was supposed to download.By the way, the NextMaker website makes you use Chrome. If you have another browser, it won't let you login, and instead gives you a link to download Chrome. Since Windows parental controls restricting specific websites work with Microsoft Edge but not with Chrome, this may or may not be a concern for you.After following the printed instructions, you have activated an online course. Then you do the online course. The online course is a little bit of writing, but mostly videos with no sound which show actions in the software or with the chip. At this time, the online course is exactly 15 videos, each of which is maybe 30 seconds long. I will try and check back in a few months, to see whether NextMaker adds in missing steps and fixes the course. Below are problems in the online course as of today:Problem: Getting the plastic case onto the chip was a little tricky, and the instructions don't tell you to put it on or show how. I felt like I had to force it and maybe I'm supposed to put the case on at some kind of angle so it would be more like sliding and less like forcing. (Case and chip seem to be good quality. The problem is no instructions at all about how to orient or if I should be forcing this or that.)Problem: In the MakeBlock console, you have to install/activate a library of code for the fingertip piano. But the instructions never tell or show how to do this. The instructions say to "Connect" to the device and show that, which is basically that the console detects the device. But when connected, the NextMaker videos show an icon for fingertip piano. I didn't have any such icon, and spent a lot of time trying to figure out if I somehow had not correctly connected the chip. Finally, I went through settings in the console, and found that there was a library of code snippets for many many kits, and you have to find your kit and install that library in order to proceed.Problem: The menu for adding libraries, like the fingertip piano library, is a little hard to navigate. It pops up in a box, and each library has an icon and label underneath. There are many, many libraries. They aren't alphabetical, and there is no search. Also, the scroll bar is particularly narrow - much narrower than the scroll bar along the side of a web browser window - and you have to click exactly on it. If you click a tiny bit to the right, then the box closes, and you have to click it open again and then go back to tediously trying to scroll with the super narrow scroll bar. I tried various things and could not get the up and down buttons on the keyboard to work for scrolling. You have to use the scroll bar.Problem: The online modules show you what to do in the MakeBlock console, but they don't really tell you to use the MakeBlock console. Instead, they give you an online console that doesn't connect with the actual physical fingertip piano.Problem: The online modules have a place to do block coding, but no way to connect to the device. You have to use the console. I feel like this actually is a bug, and if fixed, then lots of the other problems will disappear (ie. wouldn't have to install a specific library on the console and instead being in the Box 1 tutorial would have that part automatically identified and set up in the website).Problem: Instructions have you go through setting up the A and B buttons, and the joystick. But they don't have you do anything with the GND/1/2/3/4 part of the piano. And they never have you do any activities with the copper strips and colored clay that comes with the kit. This especially makes me think that instructions may be not quite done, and may get expanded over the next couple of months. Right now, it's May 2021, and this is what I'm seeing in May 2021.Age recommendation: This is recommended for ages 8 and up. I think that's accurate for being able to use the website and kit independently (if NextMaker/MakeBlock fill in gaps in the instructions). I did the kit with my kids ages 3, 5, and 7 around. The two younger ones seemed really interested in the sensors on the chip. The 3 year old wanted to touch the chip a bit more than I would like, but didn't break it. The 7 year old seemed interested in the coding part on the computer, and asked to use the kit and computer over the weekend. He has been exposed to a little bit of scratch, and I've found that having a physical item, like in this fingertip piano kit having the chip with the LED light and sensors, makes it more likely that he will play with the Scrach coding part of Scratch as opposed to go to the community part of the site and look for games that other people made. I think that 8 and up is a good range to be able to work with the kit with just a little bit of parental set up, IF NextMaker and MakeBlock flesh out the instructions and make them more complete. Kids do need to be able to read to do the coding part, and I think that end of 2nd grade / beginning of 3rd grade is the youngest that they could be expected to read well enough to be able to read commands on the blocks and be able to focus on click and drag and build a program to follow, rather than focus too much on trying to read.As far as the physical items in the kit, they seem good enough quality. And price seems totally reasonable for getting a chip with some sensors on it. I think that this is Arduino based, and thirty six dollars for the chip on the circuit board with the sensors set up, and the sturdy plastic case - that's a deal.I hope that helps understand this. At this time, I think it's not a good option for someone who hasn't already done some little internet of things kits. This is because there are some missing pieces, where I have to "connect the dots" myself. The instructions seem both incomplete (don't step through all the stuff in the kit), and to be missing steps for the parts that are covered. Most of my feeling that this will get fixed is that I researched and MakeBlock has a good reputation. It feels like they shipped for a deadline and did not complete the web tutorial before shipping, but did complete and do quality control on the physical things in the box. I am hopeful that the online instructions are in progress, and might be expanded in the near future, since this is a new release and just started shipping. So, I will plan to check back in a couple of months and update. Right now, it's May 2021. I want to stress that this is already released, and you can buy it right now. Although I got this as a promo for writing a review through Amazon's Vine program, it's not prerelease and the website definitely is something that shipped in the normal sales cycle. I also want to stress that at this time if you are a parent and know your way around similar kits, then this one works OK. So problems are likely a barrier for someone brand new to this, but can be handled if you've done similar kits. Definitely the missing instructions means someone with experience has to do the kit, whether that's a parent working with child or a child who has previously done some internet of things kits.June 2021 update: The interface problems with the software (having to install mLink, then having to go through a big nonscrolling menu and find the piano plugin) are still there. And the NextMaker website instructions haven't been updated. So, no updates to my review.

My 6-year-old enjoyed tinkering and building things that worked. really cool music functions A+