Hello Bloggineers. Welcome back to another episode of Look Who's Quarantined.
Today we're going to unbox BitsBox, a monthly subscription that teaches kids how to code.
And we've seen them appear on Shark Tank.
Oh by the way, if you like this product you can order it at the link in the description.
All right. So this is what it looks like on the outside, and we're going to open it up.
Welcome to BitsBox.
So there's wrapping here.
Welcome to BitsBox.
You are about to code your own apps.
How to get started.
Find a computer with a physical keyboard.
Open a web browser and go to bitsbox.com/code.
Hey you. Welcome to the BitsBox family.
BitsBox teaches coding because coding is about making stuff and making stuff is empowering and important.
Coding is the only superpower that anyone can learn especially you.
As you build the apps in this box, feel free to make them different, make them better.
And when you're ready, use what you've learned to make your own apps from scratch.
What's hiding in that weird wrinkling brain of yours?
C'mon, BitsBoxers.
My brain is not wrinkly.
Okay. And this says Animal House.
It looks like there's a stack of cards in here.
And on the back there's tips and tricks.
This is a grown up guide.
Stickers!
Stickers.
Animal house stickers.
Here is a BitsBox binder where you can put all your monthly projects in here.
Open it up.
It's binder with a box to store things in here. Pretty cool.
And I like the art on the outside.
So I think these are all different projects that you can get.
Oh and the one that we got is Animal House, which is this one over here.
So you can get all these projects.
Okay now I'm going to open the Animal House.
Animal House.
Keep track of the apps you've coded.
Alright and there's a whole list of apps to code.
Mini apps to get you started.
Hot Stuff, Fire Monster, Snacks Please.
DoggleHead.
DoggleHeads?
Ok, DoggleHeads.
There's a whole bunch of dogs.
Alright, this is a whole stack of cards showing the apps of Animal House.
And you can program all these apps.
It's a lot for each month. That's cool.
So now we're going to do some coding.
We've gone to the site bitsbox.com/code, and now we're going to press "get started."
Please keep your arms and legs inside the vehicle at all times.
But we're not in a vehicle.
Here for the first time? Let's go.
This is your new tablet. Hooray!
Brother is going to do this sample code.
So we're going to press Food Fight on this new iPad.
And now we have to type "fill red".
Fill red.
Then click the green play button.
Oops! Bug! You have an error. Check your code carefully.
What did you do?
Fill red.
Ok.
And then...
Now change the red to your favorite color.
Like fill tan.
Brother's code turn the background red. So now we can change it to our favorite color.
My favorite color is already there. It's red.
But that's not my favorite color, so let's change it to green.
What?
Why green?
Hooray!
No!
Now type this.
P equals stamp pie.
Oh, a pie appeared on the green background.
So now you gotta type p dot tap equals explode.
So that probably means if you tap the picture that it explodes.
Okay ready? Now click the pie. Tap it.
Oh it exploded and it's gone.
So now.
Click play to try again.
Ok, you did it.
Now play with the code to make it your own.
Try changing the pie to one of these stamps: cupcake broccoli, pizza, banana.
Click the library icon in the upper right corner to see more stamps.
Alright upper right corner and there's so many more stamps.
Is there a cow?
Dinosaurs!
Cow.
Dinosaur!
Dinosaur.
Oh there. Allosaurus appeared.
And then tap it.
Explode.
Yay!
On this page, it has three different apps. We're gonna do the very first one which is called Hot Stuff.
And we need to enter the numbered code to access the app.
Hot Stuff by Big Coder.
This is to get you started. You can just do this first.
Stamp is monster 23. So monster 23 is going to show up.
And then dot tap equals burn.
All right so that's step one. If we tap it it's gonna burn. So tap it.
There. Ok it burned.
All right, next line. Song heavy.
So now it has a song that has the heavy theme.
And then when you tap it it burns.
Type a different song.
Ok. What song do you want?
Hold on, I'm going to look for ideas.
Cowboy?
All right, this is a bit better.
How about tap equal dance.
Oh look, we made it dance.
Hold on, I want a monster 11.
There, that looks more like a monster.
So the app we created should run on the phone.
And what we do is in the top right corner, click share and there's a QR code. I'm going to zap...okay there we go.
Okay and I'm gonna play it.
So it has cowboy music.
I want this. You do the coding.
Woohoo!
This is our monster. Monster 11. And it's a cowboy song.
And when we tap it, it's going to dance.
That's pretty cool.
And you can make it do all sorts of commands but we just had it dance.
We are going to do some more coding and we'll come back with our final thoughts.
And we're back.
We made some more apps, and the one that I coded was It's Raining Cats and Dogs.
I tap the screen and down comes a hamster.
And next is a cat.
And a dog.
The animals they gave you in the pre-programmed thing, is cats and dogs.
But then for the challenge, they said try adding a hamster to the rain.
So then I just typed in the word hamster.
Oh there! And finally a meatball.
So I also did meatballs because it's raining meatballs.
So you can just add whatever object you like.
The other things that you can code with this is how many times it turns what as it's coming down.
And also how fast it comes down, and where it lands. So you can have it land down here or half way.
And then you just keep tapping it, and the objects in this program that will fall down are cats, dogs, hamsters, and meatballs.
The app that I coded was DoggleHead.
The dog dances every time you tap it.
Same with the bowl.
I added the text, and I made the dog bowl dance as well.
And I also changed the dog.
Woah! Look, it got decapitated.
And now for our final thoughts.
My favorite part is typing in the code and testing it out to see what it does.
For each apps they give you a short list of codes that you should type to start out with.
But then from there, you could change the coding lines or add new instructions to change the app.
And that way you get to explore and get creative. I really like that.
And that's what I like about BitsBox.
That you can learn coding, which is a very useful skill for life.
You can order BitsBox at the link in the description.
And maybe someday you could become a master coder, which means you can work at Google, Apple, or Facebook.
Bye bye.