Creative Coding with Artie!

Put the 'A' in STEAM with Artie, the coding robot who draws!

We were kindly gifted an Artie 3000 The Coding Robot by Educational Insights for purpose of review. All opinions and images are our own and completely genuine. This post contains affiliate links.

After seeing how much my son (and even my 2 yr old daughter) have enjoyed playing with their Botley Coding Robot, we were more than happy to test out Botley's robot sibling, Artie. From what I could tell it was a fun progression, with more challenging coding and a focus on creating art.

The recommended age for Artie is 7+ and I think they got that spot on. My son is 5 and he would not be able to use Artie independently, in the same way he can Botley. I'm not saying that as a negative as I think it is important to have progression, but more to make fellow parents aware that Artie would be too tricky for younger kids to use solo. I liked the fact that my son and his Dad were able to work on Artie as a team (just look at the picture below!).

My son thought Artie looked pretty cool when we took him out the box, he really does look like a futuristic little friend! He was relatively easy to set up, with clear instructions included and also excellent online video tutorials made available on the Code with Artie website. To play with Artie you need a tablet or laptop, but he has his own in-built wi-fi. We used our laptop to be able to perform the coding directions.

We started off by testing out some of the pre-made coding programs for shapes. You insert the marker into Artie and use the 'marker parker' to ensure it is in the correct position. There are four colors of marker to choose from. Then it is simply a case of selecting the program and pressing play! I love how excited my son got as he watched Artie drawing squares and circles!

I was so impressed that straight away my son was asking questions about how he could code Artie to draw something different. It was a strong indication to me that Artie was achieving one of his main missions- getting kids excited about coding. To code Artie my son had to use drag and drop coding boxes. He was also able to enter distance and angle numbers- a great link to numeracy. Of course what he entered didn't create anything magical like a complete shape or image, but it was the fact that he was exploring the connection between what he was entering into the computer and what Artie was performing as an outcome. So much of coding is about trial and error and I love that Artie gave him the opportunity confidence experience that!

There are also some really fun other pre-made programs, such as mazes and games. My son enjoyed completing Artie's maze, and even decided to draw one for Artie to try and navigate his way through!

We also had a great time playing tic-tac-toe on the game grids Artie made for us!

As you can see there are lots of different ways to play with Artie. After our initial testing session, my son thought Artie was pretty cool. I definitely reiterate that Artie is better for older kids as he is certainly more intricate than Botley, and other more basic coding products we have tested out. I like how engaging the product is in terms of both coding and art, and I have to say the technical support provided for the product is excellent. We are looking forward to having more fun with Artie in the future!