Coding Toys for Teens

Makeblock publishes the CyberPi controller as an Xtensa 32-bit LX6 dual-core at 240 MHz with 8 MB of flash and 8 MB of PSRAM, programmable with Scratch-style blocks, Python in mBlock and Arduino C/C++ through the Arduino IDE. Sensors published on-board are light, microphone, gyroscope and accelerometer, plus ultrasonic, quad RGB, temperature and IR modules. The battery is a built-in 2500 mAh LiPo — about an hour to charge, about five hours of play — with 60+ compatible modules, up to 10 connected at once and 8 motor and servo ports. Stated age 8+.

Three published languages on one board is the whole case. A teenager who starts in blocks because it is quick can move to Python without buying anything, and to C++ after that. Nothing else here publishes that ladder.

The honest drawback is the box. Published at 8+, it is marketed to a younger child, and a fifteen-year-old may need to be told what the controller actually is before they take it seriously.

Makeblock publishes three build forms — a robot tank, a self-balancing robot and a racing car — from about 100 parts, with 10 expansion ports, published compatibility with 500+ Makeblock parts, LEGO bricks and Arduino, mBlock offering both visual and text-based programming, and infrared, light and line-following sensors named in Makeblock’s launch post. Its stated age is 8+ on Makeblock’s site while the Amazon listing title says ages 10+; batteries are not stated on the Makeblock pages we could read.

The self-balancing build is the one that earns this a place on a teen list. Getting a two-wheeled robot to stay upright is a real control problem, and it is the kind of thing a sixteen-year-old can talk about in a college application.

We report both published ages rather than choosing the convenient one. See the mBot Ranger review.

Sphero publishes 29 Bits in total — 2 power, 7 wire, 12 input and 8 output — with inputs including a toggle switch, two buttons, two slide dimmers, a remote trigger, pulse, threshold, and proximity, temperature, light and sound sensors, and outputs including an LED, buzzer, bargraph, servo, RGB LED, number display and two DC motors. Power is 1 x 9V battery with a USB power Bit also included, 10 challenge cards, published as screen-free, grades 2-7.

Twelve inputs and eight outputs is a genuine invention surface: a proximity sensor driving a servo is a working machine with no code at all. For a teenager whose interest is making things rather than programming them, this beats a robot.

The published grade ceiling of 7 is the caveat — this is the younger end of a teen list, and a fifteen-year-old may find it thin. See the littleBits review.

JoyLabz publishes the Makey Makey board, a USB cable, 7 alligator clips, 6 connector wires, a visual project start guide and a sticker, requiring a computer — Mac, Windows, Chromebook or Linux, or any device supporting a USB keyboard or mouse — with “No programing knowledge needed. No software to install.” Stated age “Ages 8 to infinity”, no consumables.

For a teenager this is the most creatively open board here, because the project is whatever they wire it to: a drum kit of saucepans, a game controller of pencil drawings, a piano of fruit.

It also pairs naturally with code they already write at school — anything that reads a keypress can be driven by it, including Scratch and Python.

ThinkFun publishes Code Master as 60 levels from beginner to expert, single player, map-based programming logic where the avatar’s moves are sequenced to collect power crystals, with no batteries.

The logic here — sequence, conditionals, loops — is the part of programming that transfers. A teenager who finds Code Master’s later levels hard is learning something a robot with an app can hide.