Hack the Halls with Evo

With the holidays quickly approaching, we’re saving you time with a new kind of gift guide. Instead of breaking down all the stores and sites to visit this season, we’ve got a list of all the people in your life who would love Evo. Read on to see why Evo is the small, smart, social robot for all the small, smart humans in your life. (Shop Evo here and enjoy special savings for Cyber Week. Get 25% off one Evo with Evo25, or get 35% off if you buy two or more with code Evo35!)

The Future Female Engineer

Evo teaches coding for girls and boys ages eight and up. Our CEO, Nader Hamda, started Ozobot when he saw his daughters, at just five and nine years old, already losing interest in apps and computers. “The proportion of bachelor’s degrees in computer science earned by women has actually dropped,” writes Davey Alba for Wired, “from 37 percent in 1984 to 18 percent in 2014.” [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_2s3xxEbnrA&t=6s[/embed] Evo was Hamda’s answer to tech’s growing gender gap. OzoBlockly, the programming language used to code Evo, is based on JavaScript but simplified into colorful blocks kids can drag and drop to program Evo. “Early exposure,” Alba continues, “can be crucial to developing a lifelong interest in computer science.” If you want your granddaughter or niece to be the next NASA engineer, or take after ‘Queen of Carbon Science’ Mildred Dresselhaus, get her an Evo this holiday season!

The Young Artist

These days, plenty of parents are stressing about their kids’ STEM skills. But a whopping 72% of U.S. employers say they look for creativity in potential employees, which means STEAM should be more top of mind. In fact, an art background may be more in demand than ever in the coming decades. “After years of being told that it isn’t practical to try and get a job in the arts,” Sarah Cascone writes at Artnet, “art students have a new reason for optimism: Jobs that are available in their field are unlikely to be eliminated as the workforce is increasingly automated thanks to artificial intelligence.” Enter Evo. You can code Evo with OzoBlockly, sure, but you can also code Evo with colors! Evo and Bit are the only robots that work this way, thanks to our patented color code system. Color Codes make Evo the perfect robot for artists, creators, and anyone brand-new to coding. If you’ve got a future Banksy, Basquait, or O’Keefe on your hands, give them a high tech tool for self expression. Throw in some extra markers, while you’re at it.

The App Addict

Screen-time is a touchy subject these days, but it’s important to keep in mind that gaming as a kid can lead to career opportunities down the line. As Epic Games’ Elizabeth Varner told us last July, “it takes designers, engineers, and artists … and when you are really engrossed in gaming as a player, you start to realize those components.” Evo pairs to an app with Bluetooth® Smart, but is designed to make screen time smarter. As kids unbox Evo and complete their first set of Color Code activities, for example, they earn stars in the app. It’s kind of like the Candy Crush of coding. Instead of arming little ones with over-developed swiping fingers, the Evo app gives them the tools to create new technology and make their mark on the future.

Programming Parents

9 in 10 parents want their kids to learn to code, but U.S. schools are currently struggling to meet this need. Meanwhile, parents see their kids consuming tech by the gigabyte between Snapchat, Musical.ly, and YouTube. Fears abound that families are breaking apart byte by byte, each person focused on their own personal screen and curated information stream. Coding, however, can be a bonding activity and parents can learn to program too! Give the gift of Evo to any parent who’s struggling to connect with their child. Then, point them towards our playground of lessons, games, and activities to do with their kids. It’s smarter, shared screen time that they can feel good about.

Content Creators

There’s a lot of hand wringing done over the Effects of Social Media on Young Adults (see Programming Parents above). But today’s interconnected, post-Internet kids get a lot of good out of social media too. They make uncanny connections, with people from across the world who share their specific, special interests. They also find outlets for sharing their writing, acting, singing, or programming projects. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWvRr539t68[/embed] Joseph Garrett, a.k.a. ‘Stampy,’ got his start posting YouTube videos in his teens, and now produces kid-friendly content for Disney’s Maker Studios. If you know a teenaged content creator, it’s time to embrace their positive contribution to the online community. Sharing is a crucial step in any creative process, because it makes space for collaboration and innovation. The Evo app encourages kids to share their creations, from OzoBlockly programs to Color Code drawings, and also acts as a resource for finding new Evo ideas. Well, that concludes our guide to the people who would love our pocket-sized robots. Whether you’re shopping for Hanukkah, Christmas, or even the Hour of Code, Evo can help you cross almost everyone off your list. Shop Evo right on our site, and if you have questions feel free to ask in the comments section below.