finch bots (week 2)

Programming students have done a good job learning about the career fields of computer science and learning the development cycle we will be using in class.  Our development cycle includes the following steps.

1. Define the problem

2. Develop/Plan (Pseudocode)

3. Code

4. Test/Debug

5. Publish

Students also are becoming familiar with these terms as we use them during class time:

Organization, conventions, procedures, logic, loops, reference, documentation, input, output, errors, and versions.

The next projects we will be working on in class involve using the Finch robots from BirdBrain Technologies.  They have many programmable features and this will give students a chance to learn basic coding skills, and apply them to our development process.  Each day we will be working with the input and output options for the various sensors included with the Finch bot.  We started with the keyboard and made a system of controls to move the finch bot around.  Next week we will program it to avoid obstacles, display various lights, sounds, follow light, apply its motion sensors and more.

This has been a fun group of students to work with, and they are eager to learn all they can about computer programming.