Now this is hot for Christmas 2018! Assemble your wand and learn to code with challenges inspired by the Harry Potter universe. We love the combination of hands on, learn to code, and active play (how else does a wand work other than by waving it about!)
Kano, creator of build it yourself tech for all ages has announced a partnership with Warner Bros. The HarryPotter Kano Coding Kit is the first-ever Harry Potter STEM creative product.
The build-it-yourself wireless wand shows fans of all ages how to code and create, as you flick and swish through more than 70 challenges. Plety to keep an active mind busy in the school holidays!
The wand works with software and a connected app to capture movements and turn them into rich effects. It lets you make serpents slither, toads transfigure, fires flow, feathers float, goblets duplicate, Bertie Bott’s Every-Flavour Beans enlarge, and more.
Following the step-by-step coding manual, you build a wand, and learn about sensors, data and code along the way. The wand combines a gyroscope, accelerometer and magnetometer to detect its own location and speed in tridimensional space, making it capable of tracking your hand movement. These sensors allow it to place a cursor on screen exactly where you point it, and also recognize the motions of some signature spells. You can also code the wand’s light and rumble pack.
Once assembled, makers download the Kano app to start unlocking challenges across six iconic Wizarding World settings including Hogwarts, Diagon Alley, Hogsmeade and The Forbidden Forest. The creative challenges teach the fundamentals of coding and introduce the basic concepts of real-world programming thanks to a block-based interface and a JavaScript inspector, guided by simple steps.
The Harry Potter Coding Kit is Kano’s first ever product created with tablets at the forefront and works wirelessly with iOS or Android tablets as well as Windows or Mac computers. Existing Kano Computer Kit owners can use the wand to access 10 challenges inspired by the Wizarding World and unique to the Computer Kit.
The kit includes a poster that illustrates classic Wizarding World spell motions such as Incendio, Stupefy, and Wingardium Leviosa, which are featured in some special coding challenges. As with every Kano Kit, it also includes stickers, with this kit featuring stickers inspired by the Wizarding World and reimagined in the unique Kano style.
Kano’s unique step-by-step approach makes it easy for beginners to understand coding concepts and principles and helps develop real coding skills. For anyone who already knows how to code, the coding wand is a great tool to create their own art and music all controlled with specific movements.
