We recently launched the newest addition to the littleBits line on our store. The littleBits Educator Starter Kit is designed to serve as an entry-level STEAM solution for teachers to gauge the effectiveness of the littleBits platform in their STEAM education initiatives. The kit is affordable and ready to use right out of the box, offering a flexible option for teachers in any K-12 grade to evaluate how students engage with MakerEd projects using littleBits. And, if you ask us, the power of the Educator Starter Kit lies in its simplicity—no huge parts manual, no long list of projects to complete, and hardly any set-up time at all.
There’s nothing overwhelming or over the top about the kit, which makes it great for evaluation purposes. If you’re an educator who’s new to littleBits or your students haven’t had a lot of hands-on learning experiences with building circuits, you now have an ideal place to start. The kit includes just five Bits and 12 additional accessories. For those who may not know, ‘Bits’ refer to the modular, magnetic, LEGO-like littleBits blocks that snap together with other Bits and littleBits accessories. When combined, they create circuits that have power (blue), inputs (pink), outputs (green), and wires (orange)—needing at least three of these elements in order to function, just like a real circuit would.
By focusing on simplicity when exploring littleBits, the Educator Starter Kit helps both students and teachers build confidence in their inventing and instruction. Ultimately, teachers will be able to use this kit to determine if littleBits is a good fit in their school, grade level, or afterschool club. Once they’ve gotten the chance to see the kit in action and observed its effectiveness firsthand, they can use what they’ve witnessed from students to secure district- or school-wide buy-in for adding more littleBits kits to the curriculum.
At littleBits, they, like us, understand that this buy-in along with teacher comfort levels are key when integrating a new teaching tool in the classroom. It can be a stepping stone to larger EdTech implementation efforts, including classroom kits, makerspaces, and even design labs if approached creatively. In terms of littleBits, however, their classroom kit offerings include the STEAM Student Set Classroom Bundle, Code Kit Classroom Bundle, and Pro Library, which can be found at the bottom of the page.
Educators using the Starter Kit can access supporting resources, including curriculum guides and PD videos, within littleBits Classroom. There are over 70 Bits that students can combine to create over 5,000 inventions with littleBits, so this introductory kit is very useful when it comes to gaining a basic understanding of how the system and progression work. The Bits in the Educator Starter Kit were handpicked by Sphero and littleBits and are geared towards aligning with standards and helping steer students towards those ‘aha’ littleBits moments.
The five Bits in the kit are the power Bit (blue), the wire Bit (orange), the button Bit (pink), the slide dimmer Bit (pink), and the servo Bit (green). All littleBits inventions essentially start with the inclusion of the power Bit to give power to the circuit that’s being built. It has a small switch on its side and will display a bright green light when it’s been turned to the on position.
The button and slide dimmer Bits are the input Bits that are included in the kit and they’re each pink in color. The input Bits are responsible from converting input signals from the environment and transferring it to the output Bits by sending a signal that flows through the circuit. The wire Bits are always orange in color and pass signals along to the output Bits. They also allow students to build circuits in new directions and can be used to connect to other systems. Finally, the servo Bit (green) is the output Bit in the kit and it’s capable of receiving signals and turning those signals into actions, like lighting up, buzzing, and moving.
The 12 accessories in the Educator Starter Kit include a mounting board, stencils, power cable, shoes, and more, all of which can be used in the projects you’ll find in the curriculum guide. To learn more about inventing with littleBits, check out our store and additional littleBits content on our blog. If you have any questions about purchasing a littleBits kit, feel free to get in touch with us! Be sure to follow us on Twitter and Instagram as well for all of the latest educational technology news and announcements.