Getting started with Finch robots!

Robots, coding, and kids! Throughout January and February 2016, students at Brewster and John Lyman Elementary Schools, along with students at Macdonough School in Middletown, CT and Orchard School in South Burlington, VT will be thinking critically, communicating, collaborating and creating. Our first week was filled with excitement!

What will they be using as they learn and grow? Finch robots from Birdbrain technologies. These robots are pretty amazing! Deceptively simple looking, there is a ton they can do. In the summer of 2015, I learned about the Finch Loan program. They loan you finch robots for two months and then they are sent to the next school. I shared with RSD13 Tech Specialist Lindsay Petroski and colleagues John Ferrero and Donna MacDonald, we applied and the waiting began! We wanted to do something a little different, so we really thought about how students could collaborate and learn long distance. Finally, at the beginning of October, we heard that we would get the Finches in the winter! 
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The first Finch arrived right after Thanksgiving! So exciting! This is the Finch that we will keep. The box of 10 Finches arrived just before our Christmas break. I got a chance to check them out a little bit before we came back to school, but didn't want to do too much. I really wanted this to be about the students exploring and learning.

You should see their smiles!

"This is awesome!" "I love my finchy!" "So cool!" These are just a few of the comments I heard over the past week. I was a little nervous and a lot excited to introduce the finches, but I shouldn't have worried. I had the chromebooks set up when the students came in to the library. The finches were plugged in and waiting. To use the finches on chromebooks, you need to add a Chrome Extension called Finch Connection. I logged in to all the chromebooks simply to save time. When the Finch window comes up, it lets you know if your robot is connected or not. Once it is, you choose the level that you want to start at - Level 1 - and click Open Snap! Snap is the coding language we are using. It is a block-based code very similar to Scratch, so the students were familiar with it already. The right-hand picture is the screen all the kids started with.

The students came in and sat down and of course were buzzing wanting to know what these things were! I explained how the Finches had come via the Loan Program and that we would be using them for 2 months! I told them that I didn't know very much about them and that we would be learning together. By the end of the first day, I gave only 3 pieces of advice: be sure you have a control block or it's not going to do anything, explained what the lightning bolt symbol was (sound), and showed them how to change levels. That's it. They found their partners and off they went.

At the end of the 25ish minutes, we gathered back on the rug together and shared the learning that had happened. Most every group moved on to level 2 and some of the 3rd/4th grade classes tried some of Level 3. Everyone learned something and we recorded this learning on the chart stand. Next time I would use a Google doc or Padlet. 

We will check in on our teammates in Middletown and South Burlington to see how they are doing. We can't wait to create some challenges for them to solve.

Final thoughts for now . . .

I loved watching them figure things out. The curiosity, the perseverance, the collaboration I saw was truly awesome. I love it when kids shine, especially kids who don't always find success at school. I am so grateful to Birdbrain Tech for helping make this happen.