Learning Resources Space Rover Deluxe Coding Activity Set Product Review
DISCLOSURE – THIS ITEM WAS GIFTED TO THE REVIEWER FOR THE PURPOSES OF WRITING THE REVIEW. ALL THOUGHTS AND OPINIONS ARE THE REVIEWER’S OWN.
Reviewed by Mel S-W
With so much focus lately on the sky, with meteor showers, auroras and trying to spot the international space station, I was delighted to be given the opportunity to test out the Space Rover Deluxe Coding Activity set by Learning Resources. This isn’t the first set that we have had from Learning Resources and they have always been of good quality and sturdy. I have previously had Numberblocks figurines and play foam and find the toys and activities educational and I find the price really reasonable.
The package was quite large as it was quite a long thinnish box. The items within the box were not just thrown into the box but each piece had their place and were neatly displayed. The only downside to this, was that although it looked great when you opened the box, it did mean that there was quite a lot of packaging. I’m all for reducing packaging where possible and there was a bit too much for this one. It did make me laugh when I opened it and the little driver was just looking at me.
This is a great kit to help children to plan, build and test their builds and coding’s. The space rover allows you to build sequences of up to 100 steps and my little boy found it hilarious when he programmed the rover and then off it went on its merry way. I really liked the fact that there were 20 different codes that could be built. But the instructions in the instruction guide were great, they weren’t instructions as such but gave fascinating facts about space rovers like “the first space rover was sent to the earth’s moon in 1971, it was also called the Moon Buggy. The wheels on the first moon buggy were made out of piano wires” our little boy found it fascinating, the facts used simple language so it was easy for him to read and he looked forward to the next one.
Assembly was very easy and the individual parts were made out of sturdy plastic which felt well made. The Space Rover track needed to be simple and easy to take apart for each of the track designs and I think Learning Resources have achieved this well. It definitely didn’t feel flimsy so I was very happy with it.
The box announces that the Learning Resources Space Rover promotes screen free STEM. Now I had to look this up but it essentially supports children with Science, technology, engineering and maths. So I was quite pleased to be able to give my child a gift that helped to nurture these subjects. It was great to see how he reacted when something didn’t go his way and there was a programming step wrong. Initially he tried to jump straight in with another code quite quickly which failed because he wasn’t thinking about what he was doing but then you see the planning element come in, the problem solving, trying to work out where things had gone wrong and trying to overcome these. Skills that you don’t see whilst they are just watching TV.
How great would this be as a Christmas present? My little boy would have been delighted to have opened this on Christmas day. As soon as he saw the box, he wanted to crack it open and get building. I think it’s a great gift however I feel the price is a bit on the high side but given the technology that’s within it, that may be a reason why it’s the price that it is.
Rating 4.5 out of 5. This really is a great gift that has kept my child entertained for hours. The price is a little on the high side but for the amount that he has been entertained, it’s worth it
Rating: 4.5/5
RRP: £65.00
Stockist: Available from here.