o. Seriously, Lego plus electronics!
The only downside is the price. Considering that an LED costs less than 20 cents, you’re paying a premium for a $7.95 LED bit. The cost goes down if you buy kits instead of specific bits, but it’s still not as cheap as tinkering with individual components.
So, is it worth it? Well, I kind of gave it away upfront. I am a huge fan of littleBits, and here’s why:
- littleBits provide kids with instant gratification in a way that most introductory electronics can’t.
- These things truly encourage tinkering. Kids won’t just build something and let it be, they’ll swap bits and tweak and adjust, and that’s priceless.
- One of the problems that beginners have with more complex kits is getting past the fear that they’ll break something. And indeed, that’s easy to do, we’ve all blown too many LEDs thanks to forgetting a resistor. littleBits won’t break. Mess up and your experiment won’t function, but there’s no risk of damaging bits and pieces, and that’s really important in encouraging further experimentation.
- The kits come with wonderful instructions that encourage the use of cardboard, scissors, tape, and more, as much as they do electronics. The combination is inspiring and completely unintimidating.
- The littleBits site has lots of great lessons and examples, and the team has been really good about continually posting new (and seasonally relevant) content.
- Lego interoperability. Need I say more?
littleBits are not the end all. Their incredible simplicity comes with a cost in that kids will not be exposed to the fundamentals of electronics, even something as basic as circuits is deliberately concealed. And so at some point you will want to expose kids to a level beneath littleBits. But for beginners and younger kids (and anyone young at heart), littleBits are a winner.
littleBits are highly recommended.