Sphero SPRK+ made its official debut at North Delta鈥檚 George Mackie Library on July 26.

The library held an informal learning session for residents to try out the new robot and learn a bit about how it works.

鈥淔or most of them, this is their first experience with Sphero,鈥� said library manager Sandi Burgess. 鈥淪o they鈥檙e just getting a sense of how the program works.鈥�

Most of the kids at the session were just learning to drive using the Sphero SPRK+ app on a tablet 鈥� not an easy task with such sensitive robotics. But there are many other things people can do with them: program Sphero to jump, speak, dance, navigate a maze, change colour and play music.

It鈥檚 not all fun and games though. Sphero can be used to measure angles and deal with tangible mathematics.

鈥淲hat we鈥檙e going to be doing at the library is introducing basic coding programs where kids can learn basic conditional programming,鈥� Burgess said.

They鈥檒l also be able to get more personalized experiences with Sphero SPRK+ when they take the robot out on a two- or three-week loan from the library.

Sphero loans include the robot, a charging cable, a charging base and a protractor. People taking out the robot need to have their own tablet or smartphone, and to have downloaded the Sphero app.