Teaching kids embedded engineering with FlowPaw
Posted: 18 Aug 2014 18:16
Teaching kids embedded engineering with FlowPaw
Introducing FlowPaw—you won't find a more kid-friendly,
playful and fun introduction to the world of embedded
programming.
Conceived by DSPRobotics, designed and built by
MikroElektronika, FlowPaw is a development board
intended to, as the speaker in the above-video says, "inspire
the next generation of kids to get involved in computer
science, engineering and mathematics."
The paw-shaped PCB carries a STM32F415RG MCU and four
claws with mikroBUS™ sockets, waiting for click boards.
The real power of it comes from FlowStone, an unusual
programming environment from DSPRobotics that uses a
combination of graphical and text programming. It works like
this:
You pick a few click boards and plug them into claws, plug
the whole FlowPaw into a PC via USB, and from there, making
your LEDs blink, motors rotate, buttons do this-and-that, is
all just a matter of drag and drop with your mouse...
It's not just LEDs, buttons or motors, it's sensors, various
displays, communication modules, anything you can find
amongst our selection of click boards.
High-schoolers would surely agree that, for instance,
building robots sounds like an awesome thing to do. But
when they get confronted with the huge gap between what they
can imagine, and the technical skills needed to make it
happen, most of them will probably turn to their Xboxes.
What FlowPaw does, is allow kids to be creative before
becoming technical. They can explore their ideas, and when
curiosity strikes, they can easily peek at the working
code under the hood. That way, their creativity and
imagination fuels their desire to learn.
See the video for the variety of examples; different click
board combinations create burglar alarms, music synthesizers,
game controllers, all with a few mouse clicks.
The FlowPaw should be in retail around Septembar, details
coming up, so stay tuned.
After WunderBar, FlowPaw is another project we took
as part of our new Contract Manufacturing services. If
you have some ideas of your own, feel free to contact us.
Yours sincerely,
MikroElektronika
Introducing FlowPaw—you won't find a more kid-friendly,
playful and fun introduction to the world of embedded
programming.
Conceived by DSPRobotics, designed and built by
MikroElektronika, FlowPaw is a development board
intended to, as the speaker in the above-video says, "inspire
the next generation of kids to get involved in computer
science, engineering and mathematics."
The paw-shaped PCB carries a STM32F415RG MCU and four
claws with mikroBUS™ sockets, waiting for click boards.
The real power of it comes from FlowStone, an unusual
programming environment from DSPRobotics that uses a
combination of graphical and text programming. It works like
this:
You pick a few click boards and plug them into claws, plug
the whole FlowPaw into a PC via USB, and from there, making
your LEDs blink, motors rotate, buttons do this-and-that, is
all just a matter of drag and drop with your mouse...
It's not just LEDs, buttons or motors, it's sensors, various
displays, communication modules, anything you can find
amongst our selection of click boards.
High-schoolers would surely agree that, for instance,
building robots sounds like an awesome thing to do. But
when they get confronted with the huge gap between what they
can imagine, and the technical skills needed to make it
happen, most of them will probably turn to their Xboxes.
What FlowPaw does, is allow kids to be creative before
becoming technical. They can explore their ideas, and when
curiosity strikes, they can easily peek at the working
code under the hood. That way, their creativity and
imagination fuels their desire to learn.
See the video for the variety of examples; different click
board combinations create burglar alarms, music synthesizers,
game controllers, all with a few mouse clicks.
The FlowPaw should be in retail around Septembar, details
coming up, so stay tuned.
After WunderBar, FlowPaw is another project we took
as part of our new Contract Manufacturing services. If
you have some ideas of your own, feel free to contact us.
Yours sincerely,
MikroElektronika
