Dash Robot review: Will it teach your kids math + coding?

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The Dash Robot Reviewed

Today's review is one of the coolest robots for kids, the Dash Robot, from the company Wonder Workshop.

It may be on the expensive side -- around $150 as of this review's publication -- but it promises to be a great force for computational learning and STEM fun for your kids. Is it worth it?

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If you're not familiar with the Dash Robot, it is a hot STEM/robots toy, originally released in 2015. It's won a bunch of awards, including the 2015 National Parenting Gold, Time to Play Magazine 2015 Holiday Most Wanted List, Opening Minds Innovation for Schools, ISTE Best of Show for Schools.

Wonder Workshop bills the Dash Robot as a coding and math learning toy. Ideally, the Dash Robot should teach your kids how to program a robot. It's built for people with no programming background, using visual coding on the app.

Ideally, the Dash Robot will introduce novice programmers to computational thinking and experimentation with programming -- while also bolstering the skills of kids who are already somewhat experienced with programming. The toy is set up to pose many different projects and challenges, that can scaffold skills and continually encourage your kid to improve their programming skills.

The toy is meant to be interactive and playful. The kids can reorder the pieces, attach it to the head, and then see what the Dash Robot does.

Our verdict?

The Dash Robot is easy to understand for ages 5 or 6 on up.

The mobile/tablet apps offer you and your kids cool, interactive ways to play with the robot. It gives more options than the Code-a-Pillar -- it has a wider set of programming inputs your kid can play with, and more races, challenges, and goals to aim for.

At the same time, though, the dependency on the app integration might be a turn-off to you, if you're concerned with screen time and tablet/phone usage. If you want to restrict your kids' interactions with these devices, this toy might not fit your family. You have to pretty much hand over your device to your kid in order for them to experiment with programming the Dash Robot.

The cost is also pretty steep at $148.57 for a toy, especially if you want to get the full "Wonder Pack" version. It has more materials to challenge your kid, as well as another robot and more accessories -- but its cost is $273.99 at the time of publication. That's an expensive investment for a toy -- too much for us as parents.

We know, the promise of turning your kid into a little coder sounds exciting -- and if $148.57 isn't too much for you, we recommend trying out the Dash Robot for your kid. If they really love it and engage with the programming, then consider the bigger pack -- or wait a while, and see if the prices drop as new generations emerge!

The Rundown

Overall score: 8/10

Pros

  • This will increase fine motor skills for most kids.
  • For kids 6 and up, they will likely be able to understand how to program the Dash Robot, and get the STEM lessons that we parents want them to learn.
  • The Dot Robotics Kit allows more varied patterns in a smaller spaces in the room.
  • It is fairly easy to program the Dash Robot. The app is intuitive -- it won't bog down your kid's STEM learning.
  • It's built well, with a strong motor -- and good, crisp movement of the robot.
  • After installing and downloading the Wonder app on your device, the Bluetooth connection to the robot works well.
  • It can teach younger and novice programmers to run robots, thanks to the preprogrammed scripted movements. As kids get more familiar and learn more advanced coding and logic controls then they can write their own scripts and create their own challenges. The Dash Robot should grow with them -- providing multiple years of learning.

Cons

  • It's definitiely expensive - $148.57
  • For kids on the younger end, it takes a lot of parental guidance to get them going. Littler siblings, who are 5 or 6 years old, especially will want to play with this robot, but they might not fully understand how it works. They likely won't get the STEM computational thinking lessons as much.
  • The floor needs to be a hard surface. If you've got carpets or different surfaces, you'll get annoyed and your kids will be too.
  • It doesn't pack much educational power for younger children between 2-4 years old -- though it can still be a fun robotics toy for them to chase around and wonder about.