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The Sphero SPRK+ and the SPRK Lightning Lab App is a great educational platform for children to learn about coding and robotics.  Although you probably don't want to write Sphero's Oval programming code using the Apple iPhone 7 (the iPad is much better suited for that), it's easier for coding beginners to use the iPhone to immediately play around with Sphero's graphical block coding scheme or simply draw the path you want the Sphero to follow.

Note if you want to write Oval code on an Windows PC or Mac using a Chrome browser, the only way to run them on Sphero SPRK+ is through a mobile device like the Apple iPhone 7.

To start coding on the Apple iPhone 7, just download and open the SPRK+ Lightning Lab App from Apple's App Store.

The Sphero SPRK+ and Apple iPhone 7 use Bluetooth Low Energy to communicate so make sure Bluetooth is turned on the iPhone.

  

The SPRK Lightning Lab App has some introductory screens and you'll need to sign-in with an existing Sphero account or use a new one.  One of the nice things about the App is that you can look at code developed by others in the Sphero Community and learn by modifying them. 

   

   

To make sure the Sphero SPRK+ can connected to the Apple iPhone 7, you can select Drive on the bottom of the Lightning Lab App.  Once selecting the SPRK+ as the robot you want to connect, you can then bring the Sphero SPRK+ close to your Apple iPhone 7 in order for the two to use Bluetooth Low Energy to connect.  Make sure the Sphero SPRK+ is well charged or else you will see the App start to lose Bluetooth connection.

  

If you need a break and want have some fun, the regular Sphero App also works with the Sphero SPRK+.  After downloading the Sphero App from the App Store, we could immediately start controlling and playing games using the Sphero SPRK+ without having to log in.

 

As long as the battery was full, we had no problems with the Sphero SPRK+ connecting to the Apple iPhone 7.  In fact, we found that even when battery was getting on the low side, the Apple iPhone 7 was able to connect to the Sphero SPRK+ more reliably than Apple's 9.7-inch iPad Pro.