BBC Doctor Who Coding Kit 
10/12/2020 HiFive USA
PRODUCT DESCRIPTION
With the rapid increase in Internet of Things (IoT) devices and smart consumer products, opportunities for bright young minds with coding skills are being created every day. The HiFive Inventor is a visually stunning IoT-enabled hand-shaped mini-computer designed to teach kids how to control robots, interface with IoT systems, or build their own sonic screwdriver to investigate the world around them. The HiFive Inventor will engage kids with its friendly hand-shaped form factor. With built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth technologies this reinforces the wireless data handoff between devices (or “HiFive”) that will power 21st-century technology applications of computing for smart cities, intelligent factories, and enhanced wearable technology. Enabled by the award-winning Tynker creative coding platform, the HiFive Inventor engages students to begin coding quickly in a self-paced and learner-driven environment. Tynker has vast experience and knowledge on how to engage kids to learn to code and has created hundreds of hours of content that has motivated millions to become makers of technology. The BBC Doctor Who HiFive Inventor is narrated by Jodie Whittaker, the Thirteenth Doctor, as she takes students on intergalactic journeys and challenges like learning to code and pilot an alien spaceship, control a robot and program an exotic musical instrument. Learn more at HiFiveInventor.com.
- INDUSTRY LEADING PARTNERS - Tynker and BBC Learning take coding to the next level with the revolutionary new BBC Doctor Who HiFive Inventor Coding Kit. Comes with a programmable HiFive mini-computer and guided coding lessons covering Block Coding and Micropython.
- EXCITING NEW CODING PLATFORM - Featuring the HiFive Inventor, a programmable Internet of Things (IoT) mini-computer, complete with built-in sensors, 16 million color-LED display, WiFi and Bluetooth enabled, a lighted USB cable, external battery pack, speaker and alligator clips.
- ENGAGING CONTENT - Powered by lessons narrated by the 13th Doctor, Jodie Whittaker, users will navigate exciting activities such as wirelessly piloting an alien spaceship, building an intergalactic weather station, controlling a robot, inventing alien musical instruments, and more!
- PROGRAMMING FOR ALL AGES - Includes Block Coding courses for beginners, MicroPython courses for more advanced coders, expandable edge connector and interactive Tynker Workshop environment for virtually unlimited creativity!
- CODE WITH FRIENDS - Connect your HiFive with your friends and collaboratively code together. Powered by Tynker, the #1 coding platform for kids worldwide, and BBC Learning, a global leader in digital education. Works with any Internet-connected computer, no coding experience necessary. Ages 7+ Bullet Point
The BBC Doctor Who HiFive Inventor Coding Kit makes
coding fun and easy
- HiFive Inventor mini-computer
- Doctor Who and Tynker coding lessons
- Thousands of activities and challenges
- External speaker
- Light up USB LED cable
- External battery pack
- Alligator clips
REVIEW FROM AMAZON
This kit was a way for me to do some teeny tiny projects with a small computer that has many built in sensors. It's something like a canned Raspberry Pi or Arduino kit, except that the circuit board it comes with is the HiFive. The point of the HiFive is that it has many integrated sensors to measure the environment around it. So, you can program it to react to things around it.
The kit comes with:
Everything you need. You do not need to buy anything. (Well, you have to have a computer to use the HiFive Inventor website.) Basically, the HiFive is a circuit board. To use it, you would need at a minimum a power source (which could be a USB cable). The kit also gives you a case and power supply and a speaker output and all the cables you would need. No googling to find out what to buy to do the lessons.
The HiFive chip: This is a hand shaped chip with several kinds of sensors on it. It has the following sensors/features: wifi card (for hitting website APIs), LED light panel, accelerometor, magnet detector, two buttons for input, light sensor, volume sensor, USB port for connecting to the computer and loading programs, a 2 pin electric port for connecting to a battery power pack. I got the "BBC Doctor Who Coding Kit". This one is about seventy five dollars and comes with the HiFive chip, plus several peripherals. There is a cheaper kit that comes with just the HiFive and I *think* also the bundled access to the HiFive website. So, if you have already done work with things like the Arduino or Raspberry Pi, you might be able to get just the chip. For me, it would have cost me more and been a hassle to try and source the little accessories, mostly because I don't know where to get them and would have paid lots in shipping getting this and that. I think unless you already have some of this stuff, the kit is totally worth it, and definitely worth it for someone like me who doesn't know exactly what to get to be able to use the HiFive chip.
A black and red case for the HiFive chip: You can see this in the product pics. It's really easy to take the chip in and out (but not something a child would do by accident). To expose places for alligator clips to go, the red panel snaps on and off, and is easy to remove for chip or adult. To remove the black plastic case from around the chip, the is a tab that says "PUSH" and you push that to release small plastic hooks so it can come off, then it can fold back on.
A USB cord: It comes with a short little maybe 6 inch long USB cord to hook the HiFive to a computer. This USB cord has LED lights in the cord of it, so that when it's plugged into a computer it sparkles in pale blue colors.
Battery pack: It comes with a small black plastic case that can hold 3 AA batteries. That connects with a cord to a 2 port plug in the fingertips of the HiFive. When the HiFive is plugged in, the HiFive and battery pack are about the same size as one another and are connected by a short power cord. It's kind of awkward to handle, because there isn't a way to snap the batteries into the HiFive. Instead, it's this separate power supply and cord. Battery life seems fine. It's not powering moving parts, and instead is powering sensors, lights, and sound - it's way less power than any toy that moves.
3 Alligator clip cables: In the product pics, you can see the black case with red bar along the bottom at the wrist. That red bar comes off to show a bar for clipping alligator clips to. You can use those to send signals out of the HiFive, and specifically to clip alligator clips to that bar, and then to an included speaker.
Small speaker: The speaker has a small circuit board attached, and you can use the alligator clips to connect it to the HiFive in order to play music or sounds.
Access to the HiFive Inventor Website:
- The kit comes with a card with an access code to the HiFive inventor website. This kit is made by Tynker, which is an online platform for kids to learn coding and has a Tynker website for a monthly fee to access several coding based games. The HiFive Inventor website is separate from the Tynker website. Registering there with the code went smoothly. I made a parent account, then a child account. After that, all access to the HiFive content is through the child account. You can go back into the parent account, but can't get to any content from it. You can make additional children, but they only have an area to create projects - they do not have any lessons. So if you will do the tutorials with your child, then you have to share. If you get the HiFive circuit board by itself without the kit, I believe that this access code comes with the lower priced option of getting just the HiFive circuit board, and that you do not need the kit, which I got, in order to get access.
- The website has a Dr Who based story line and some small projects. It is broken into 10 Dr. Who lessons that are click and drag blocks of code similar to scratch, then 10 Dr. Who lessons that are micropython. For each lesson, there is an animated storyline part that is voiced by current Dr. Who actors. Then there is a click and drag scratch style coding project. The tutorial really spells it out, and basically says put these blocks in the correct order, and you only have a few blocks to work with, then it shows the solution and says that's what your blocks should look like. After the coding lesson, you connect the HiFive and then load the code onto it through the USB. (It also appears to allow loading code through WiFi, as long as you have the battery power connected to the HiFive, but I didn't do this.) These Dr. Who tutorials seemed to work well for my 7 year old son, because the computer reading it to him and it being so broken down meant that it was something he could do. Because he is not that fluent at reading, that was a barrier for some parts. The content seemed fine for him, and the voice actors reading many of the lessons to him seemed to work well with him not reading to grade level.
- The website has an area to let you make your own projects. You can create project, then click and drag blocks to code or use micropython. It's a bit of a jump from the 4 HiFive lessons, which are so laid out, to the projects area, which is open ended. Really, someone probably has to work through the other tutorials (that are not Dr. WHo and HiFive based) to be able to get to where they can use the projects area.
- The HiFive Inventor website also comes with unlimited access to the Glitch Manor coding game. You can find lots about that game, since it is on the Tynker subscription website as well. The access through the HiFive Inventor website is unlimited access, so actual real access and not a 30 day trial. The Glitch Manor game appealed a lot to my 7 year old. It does not have voice actors reading, and instead has animated witches and characters who have text bubbled appear next to them to give instructions. He is below grade in reading, and had trouble following instructions. Nevertheless, he seemed to be interested in the game. He is highly motivated to video games, and I have tried to block access to voiced games and instead guide him towards text based games, in order to improve his reading, so the format is fine for him, just the instructions are hard for him to follow sometimes.
- The HiFive Inventor website also has some python lessons with a cartoon talking snake.
- The HiFive Inventor website comes with unlimited access to some micropython tutorials, which I assume are coming from the Tynker platform.
- Since Tynker is a monthly fee (or a high fee for lifetime access), and the HiFive Inventor website is unlimited access with the registration, that's a good way for me to try out the Glitch Manor game with my kids to see whether they like it and the format works for them. (Tynker has many more games, so it's not equivalent, but it's a good way for me to see if the style works for my kids.)
- Terms of use for the website say I can loose access at any time, and basically there's no promise of long term access or even a warning period if the website is discontinued. (Tynker is an established stable company, but my assumption is that depending on how well the HiFive works, the website may not be maintained a few years into the future.)
- As far as I can tell, there is no way to interact with other users on the website, or to see other peoples' projects that they made for the HiFive. (I may totally be missing something.)
Age level for this: The age is listed as being for seven and older. I think that's accurate. It's important for the child to be able to read a chapter book, and then they will be able to read well enough to do the Glitch Manor tutorial games and other tutorials. The website appeals to that age for sure, so it's really about reading. (They don't have to read to do the HiFive tutorials, but there are only 4 lessons total in the HiFive section and each takes maybe an hour to do if that.)
Is it educational: It's a good introduction to robotics. It's possible to see the parts of the HiFive, and to make the buttons do things, and that can be eye opening. The actual coding... I have mixed feelings. All these little kid websites do variations of scratch with the click and drag code blocks format. I do think that going with a more formal website for click and drag programming is good. MIT and Berkeley each run a scratch based website, where kids can make and share code, but the problem is that maybe kids will just play games or watch videos that other kids have made, and never look at the source code and never make their own. The Tynker materials on the HiFive Inventor website make it to where the point is to code (or copy laid out code as the case may be).
I hope that gives a feel for what this is, and whether it's worthwhile to get and work through.
OP: $75.00
