Local electronics distributor and retailer RS Components has announced the availability of the new CTC 101 Genuino STEAM Education Toolbox.

What is this awkwardly named product and why should you care? Well unless your a teacher or a learner between the ages of 13 and 17 you won’t but if you are either of those here’s what the product is.

The CTC 101 Genuino STEAM Education Toolbox is box that contains Genuino 101 microcontroller boards, shields, sensors, connectors and all the electronics you need to start programming and making robots. All tolled there are over 700 components within the Toolbox.

“The CTC 101 kit has been designed for teachers and other instructors working in education and is specially tailored for the 13 to 17 age group at secondary schools. Each kit includes enough electronic components for a class of 24 students and a teacher,” explains RS Components.

The Genuino boards are built on the Arduino platform so getting to grips with making using these boards should be relatively simple given the wealth of tutorials and guides available for free online.

Learners and teachers will be able to do 25 experiments using the kit and what’s more is that the kits can be reused and developed to make more advanced projects once the basics have been learned.

The only problem is the price. At R36 811.11 (that’s excluding VAT) the Toolbox is absolutely something a school or learning institution would need to purchase.

If you’d like to learn more about mixing making with education check out the Arduino website which houses numerous resources for teachers

The Toolbox is available now through RS Components.