Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Lots of sensors to provide input
There are many sensors available, such as infrared, video, sonar, gyros, accelerometers, controllers, and more.
Pro Control real world objects
Children are encouraged by seeing their programming efforts doing something in action, and having the result command a robot is a very tangible way of showing the outcomes of their programs.
Pro Support for multiple programming languages
There are many enthusiast projects for accessing the mindstorms API over Bluetooth to allow you to use any programming language of your choice, allowing for advancing students to graduate to more advanced languages while still controlling something familiar.
Pro Simple drag and drop interface
Mindstorms has an intuitive visual programming interface with digital previews of actions to make programming easy for beginners. The visual programming interface allows for actions, control flow, sensors, data manipulation and more.
Cons
Con Expensive
The base mindstorms kit costs $350 and additional sensor components range from $20 - $50 each.