Finch Collaboration
What happens when you put together a collection of robots and a bit of training with a few classes of motivated elementary school students from three different states? The answer is loads of collaboration, teamwork, critical thinking, problem-solving and FUN!
It all began with a blog post in June 2015 by Andy Plemmons, a fabulous librarian friend in Georgia. He wrote about a loan program provided by Birdbrain Technologies for “Finch” robots. Another good friend in Connecticut, Jenny Lussier, asked if I’d like to join her in a collaborative project to connect our students through using the robots. Of course, I agreed. In August 2015, we each wrote a proposal for a loan of eleven robots to use with our students during January and February 2016.
When we received news of our acceptance into the Birdbrain Technologies Finch loan program in late September, Jenny and I began our planning through use of a shared Google doc. We couldn’t wait to begin! Although the boxes of Finches arrived in late November, we didn’t want to begin programming them until after our students had some basic coding instruction that included participation in code.org’s “Hour of Code” in December.
It all began with a blog post in June 2015 by Andy Plemmons, a fabulous librarian friend in Georgia. He wrote about a loan program provided by Birdbrain Technologies for “Finch” robots. Another good friend in Connecticut, Jenny Lussier, asked if I’d like to join her in a collaborative project to connect our students through using the robots. Of course, I agreed. In August 2015, we each wrote a proposal for a loan of eleven robots to use with our students during January and February 2016.
When we received news of our acceptance into the Birdbrain Technologies Finch loan program in late September, Jenny and I began our planning through use of a shared Google doc. We couldn’t wait to begin! Although the boxes of Finches arrived in late November, we didn’t want to begin programming them until after our students had some basic coding instruction that included participation in code.org’s “Hour of Code” in December.
My six classes of fourth and fifth graders enjoyed learning how to code, but they were anxious to begin programming with robots. They finally got the chance right after the holiday break.
To program the Finches, students in Vermont used Snap on laptop computers, while Jenny Lussier’s students used the same program through a Chromebook extension. Snap uses a visual drag-and-drop programming language that our students picked up rather quickly. Teams of students shared their learning with classmates near and far.
To program the Finches, students in Vermont used Snap on laptop computers, while Jenny Lussier’s students used the same program through a Chromebook extension. Snap uses a visual drag-and-drop programming language that our students picked up rather quickly. Teams of students shared their learning with classmates near and far.
Midway through the robotics unit, some tweets we had sent out about our work with the robots were noticed by some organizers of EdCamp Global.
They were planning an event that would link more than 800 classrooms in 51 countries over its 24 hour experience. Jenny quickly put together an application and our session was soon on the EdCamp Global schedule. I added a Google doc of notes and resources for our participants’ reference and questions.
We invited Andy Plemmons to join us for the Google Hangout on Air and we all took to social media to advertise our session, which happened to be scheduled during the first hour of the event. (Please click on an image below to see larger picture.)
During the one-hour live session, our students took turns sharing their experiences with the robots. We talked about the Finch robots, but also others, including Dash & Dot, and the Sphero group of SPRK, BB8 and Ollie. It was great to hear the students talk about the challenges that they faced and how they overcame them. They spoke about their favorite robots, too. An archive of our EdCamp Global session may be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PsuoTl1CKo
Following the session, I created a collage of images from our experience.
Following the session, I created a collage of images from our experience.
Following the excitement of the presentation, we continued to work with our robots through February.
One final bit of collaboration took the form of challenges posed in Flipgrid videos.
http://flipgrid.com/#13c2de5
Orchard School students answered the challenges in our own Flipgrid videos.
Orchard School students answered the challenges in our own Flipgrid videos.
http://flipgrid.com/#ce6585d9
This two month collaborative venture was such an amazing time for all of our students AND the educators involved. It was a time to learn from each other, while also sharing our experiences with the world. I look forward to many more future connections with others beyond the four classroom walls.
Additional Information:
EdCampGlobal - Meet the Robots by Jenny Lussier
Getting Started with Finch Robots by Jenny Lussier
Connecting Voices Through Robotics: An EdCamp Global Event by Andy Plemmons
Classrooms Connect Virtually to Code with Finch Robots by Donna Macdonald
Robots Jumpstart Learning in Some US Districts from Education DIVE (Orchard School featured)
Flipgrid Inspires Elementary Innovation - a Flipgrid blog entry
This two month collaborative venture was such an amazing time for all of our students AND the educators involved. It was a time to learn from each other, while also sharing our experiences with the world. I look forward to many more future connections with others beyond the four classroom walls.
Additional Information:
EdCampGlobal - Meet the Robots by Jenny Lussier
Getting Started with Finch Robots by Jenny Lussier
Connecting Voices Through Robotics: An EdCamp Global Event by Andy Plemmons
Classrooms Connect Virtually to Code with Finch Robots by Donna Macdonald
Robots Jumpstart Learning in Some US Districts from Education DIVE (Orchard School featured)
Flipgrid Inspires Elementary Innovation - a Flipgrid blog entry