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Ozobot Evo is a pocket-sized robot you can program with a Sharpie.
If you’re a parent who feels that every toy in 2017 is designed to add even more tablet time to your already overwhelmed child’s life you aren’t alone. For this reason alone I leapt at the opportunity to check out Ozobot’s Evo, a tiny robot that you can ‘program’ with colored markers. Offline toys that teach children how to code may just be the remedy to our screen-time management woes.

At first glance I didn’t think a walnut-sized rolling bot that blinks and chirps was going to compete with its bigger, more robust competitors. Being able to draw lines and watch it follow is cool, but at the end of the day if I’m buying a robot for my kids it has to be fun and engaging.

Credit: Nicole Gray

Evo is exactly that. Perhaps even more so than some its larger counterparts, and it’s because of a proprietary color-based coding system called OzoCodes. While it comes with an included exploration mat (which in itself is an 8 piece jigsaw puzzle) featuring various OzoCodes, I spent far more time drawing my own. And it was a blast.