• What is it? Assemble a robot that uses sensors to detect and travel away from obstacles
• What’s in the Box? Paper body components, motor assembly, wire, and double-sided tape
• How Much? $15.99 at MakerShed
• Age Range? Ages eight and up
• How Did We Acquire it? ILEAD-USA Grant
  

   

  Ideas for Use

  Because a large part of the experience with this robot is assembling it, this would be a good kit for one or two kids, or as part of a station-style robotics program.

  Time Involved

  It took three and a half hours (including a lunch break) to mostly assemble the kit.

  One-time or Recurring Program

  Assembling the kit is a one-time activity, as it’s made of cardboard and held together in places with tape. It could not be easily disassembled and reassembled. Once built, it could be used again and again durability may be a limiting factor.

  Extension Activities

  You could set up different courses for the obstacle-avoiding robot to avoid.

  Skills You Need

  You need a great deal of patience and ability to work with tiny parts, but the instructions are detailed enough that no prior electronics expertise is necessary.

  Other Tools You Need.

  Batteries (2 AA) are not included. Although everything needed for assembly was included in the box, we ended up also using our own double-sided tape and some extra wire.

  Good Stuff

  This is extremely appealing for kids who are into tinkering or are looking for a challenge.

  Frustrations

  So many frustrations. It contains so many tiny parts, the double-sided tape provided was not sticky enough, the wires provided were not long enough to connect what needed to be connected, and in the end the robot is made of cardboard, so you know your efforts are not going to something of enduring value. After three and a half hours of assembly time, it still does not actually run; we’re going to have to work on that another day.

Ending Thoughts/Observations

My department head looked at this robot and said, “I would not recommend this as a purchase.” However, the twelve-year-old girl who supplied most of the labor and expertise in assembling it had a great time, and plans to use her allowance money to purchase one for her own use.

Overall Rating

The Obstacle Avoiding Robot would be a good individual purchase for a child or teen who is interested in tinkering or robotics, but it is not a good fit for library programming purposes.

• What is it? The Finch Robot is designed for computer science education. It uses a variety of programming languages. See more information here: http://www.finchrobot.com/
• What’s in the Box? The Finch Robot, cord, and a 1 page instruction sheet.
• How Much? $99
• Age Range? The Finch is good for kids who are comfortable with the idea of programming. I would probably say 3rd grade and up.
• How Did We Acquire it? Through the ILEAD grant funds.

What I tried:

I have not used Finch in a program and I’m not sure if I ever will. My goal with the Finch was just to attempt to figure it out. After reading of Kim’s problems, I wanted to give it a try. I had a similar experience as her kids attempting to make it work.

The Finch requires software downloads and also at least a small understanding of some coding languages. I downloaded Scratch, since that was the program I was most familiar with.

The Finch requires software downloads and also at least a small understanding of some coding languages. I decided to try Scratch, since I had a basic understanding of the program. The Finch also requires you to download certain software depending on what programming language you pick. It definitely takes a little bit to get started. I found their instructions to be incredibly lacking. It felt very much like the designers had not user tested the instructions on us normal folks.

It took a lot of plugging and unplugging of the USB to get the Finch to talk to Scratch. Once it seemed to recognized the software I thought it would be smooth sailing. Incorrect. It was difficult to figure out how to get the Finch specific codes into Scratch. And then once I did, it took me a while to even find a code that worked. When I did look at the examples, (uhh, yeah I know, should have done that first), I thought they were rather weird. The codes worked, but they were not basic things that most people would want The Finch to do – like make it go.

After a big of struggling, I did finally make a program that worked with The Finch and it was exciting when it finally happened. I consider myself an intermediate coder and this was  difficult for me. I do not think The Finch is suitable for beginners at all.

Skills Needed:

To use the Finch you must have some coding skills, familiarity with a programming tool like Scratch, and be patient when it comes to Troubleshooting. You also need some time to figure the thing out.

Good Stuff

I do think you could use The Finch with a coding club, or kids who already have some experience. I don’t think it will be good with kids who are at the beginner stages.

Frustrations

The Finch is very frustrating. It is the most frustrating robot I have worked with yet. What I find even more troubling is how much it has been promoted. It seems to have gotten positive press and while I do think that it has potential – it is not there yet. They need to make sure The Finch is responsive when you first plug it in, and it would be much easier to work with if it was wireless. In the end, I think most kids would get frustrated with The Finch.

Ending Thoughts/Observations

If you have an interested coding club, give it a try. Otherwise, save yourself $99.

Overall Rating

Stinky

From the website,

“The Finch is a new robot for computer science education. Its design is the result of a four year study at Carnegie Mellon’s CREATE lab.

The Finch is designed to support an engaging introduction to the art of programming. It has support for over a dozen programming languages and environments, including several environments appropriate for students as young as eight years old.

The Finch was designed to allow students to write richly interactive programs. On-board features include:

• Light, temperature, and obstacle sensors
• Accelerometers
• Motors
• Buzzer
• Full-color beak LED
• Pen mount for drawing capability
• Plugs into USB port – no batteries required”

What’s in the box:
The Finch robot and cord.

How much is it:
The Finch robot costs around $100.  You can find the product here: http://www.finchrobot.com/

Age Range:
This one varies.  It uses the same programming language as Scratch, so if you have kids who are familiar with MIT’s Scratch program, they could probably handle the Finch.  I would say 6th grade and up.

How did we acquire it?
ILEAD USA grant funds.

Ideas for Use
I had two Robot Test Kitchen sessions with 9 middle school kids.  I brought out our two Finch robots for the kids.  In one session, two kids worked together to figure out the Finch.  The other session had a single girl, about 12, playing with the robot.  In both cases, none of the kids had experience with Scratch or any of the other programming languages recommended to run Finch.

In both sessions, the kids had a difficult time making the Finch work.  I tried to work with them and had a frustrating time getting the Finch synced up with the laptop.  Each computer must download the software needed (it’s free software) to make the robot run.  Getting this to work was a struggle for all of us.  It took a lot of unplugging, plugging in, restarting, and patience to get the software to sync up with the Finch.  When the programming language and the robot finally worked together, it was interested for the kids to create simple commands to move the robot.

One of the other issues with the Finch is that it is not a wireless device.  The Finch robot has to be plugged into the computer at all times.  Because of this, it limits the amount of space and movements it can perform.  The kids found this to be frustrating because they wanted to include commands the Finch couldn’t fulfill due to space restrictions.

Time Involved
You do not have to do any prep for this except for downloading the free programming language you want to use to control the Finch. After that, you play for as long or as short as you want.

One Time or Recurring
I think making this a reoccurring program would be good.  It took so long to figure out that by the time the class was over, we were only able to play around for a little while.

Skills Needed
It would be good to have a knowledge of Scratch.  I did not want to prepare myself for this program because I wanted to be at the same level a new person would be at if they walked into the class.  It is not an intuitive program for those who are not code-savvy.

I would recommend that anyone who wants to lead this program play around a little with the Finch before unleashing it for the kids to use.  It requires a very specific skill set and if no one knows how to do it, it makes for a long class.

Good Stuff
Honestly, I do not have a lot of great things to say about the Finch Robot.   I saw two young middle school boys who read through the directions and tried several problem solving techniqures to make the robot work.  They were able to work well together and that was a positive outcome.

Bad Stuff
I did not care for this product.  Perhaps it was me.  I am not super excited by computer programming or these types of robotics.  It would be better to do this program with kids who are familiar with programming language and are willing to take the time to solve problems.

Overall Rating
Not for a beginner.  I’d say one an a half thumbs down.  The other half a thumb might just be for my lack of experience and patience.  It is worth trying if you know Scratch.

Goldmine Electronics Racing Robot

This week, three of us* attended a Tinker meeting where we heard about some great technology programs in libraries, felt a little overwhelmed, learned to solder, and built a Racing Robot. Our full review after the jump. *Sharon, Kim, and Heather

Robot Basics:

• What is it?

The Racing Robot is made up of two printed circuit boards (PC boards), a handful of electronics components (resistors, diodes, LEDs, capacitors, and the like), a battery, and a motor. Components are soldered on to the boards, the boards are attached, wheels and a battery are added, and if all goes well, you’ve created a robotic car.

• What’s in the Box?

package contents

more parts

All of the pieces are included, as well as the PC boards. The kit also includes a hand full of practice pieces – real electronics components that can be used to learn how to solder before building the robot. These pieces are separated out and clearly marked.

• What else is needed?

This kit requires that you have a number of other items: A soldering iron, solder, needle nosed pliers, wire clippers, solder wick (which is used to recapture excess solder) and a 9V battery are essential.  A “helping hand” or “third hand” which is a stand with alligator clips that allows you to use both of your hands and not worry about holding the board isn’t essential, but is highly recommended.

• How much?

This kit sells for $16.85. The soldering iron and additional supplies could cost as little as $10 and aside from the solder, can be reused for future projects.

• Age Range?

The librarian who presented the program has done similar projects with his 6th-8th graders and would consider using this kit with them as well. That seems a good age for the end product, but because of the difficulty, we recommend that you start with a small group – ideally kids you already know will be able to handle the hot soldering iron responsibly – or older teens. Ask yourself how comfortable you would be with the group using hot glue guns to attach seed beads to a credit card, then add an extra layer of caution.

• How we acquired it

Working together

The kit we built was provided free of charge by the Tinker group.

Ideas for use:

• time involved? one-time or recurring program?

It took the three of us close to two hours to build the kit. If this kit were used in a library program, we suggest planning for at least that much time, or splitting it into two or even three sessions. One suggested scenario is:

• Day 1: Learn to solder; attach the practice pieces, then remove them
• Day 2: Begin building the robot
• Day 3: Complete the robot, test, troubleshoot, race

• extension activities

Once you have a handle on the kit, you could dig into each electronic component and learn why it does what it does. If your group is building multiple kits, comparing one to another and having a conversation about what worked best is another option. And of course, racing the kits! The biggest extension though is taking the knowledge of how to solder into other projects.

• skills you need

Soldering… on the wrong side of the board

Patience, perseverance, and a sense of humor were essential for us. Since this kit is a “learn to solder” project, participants need not know how to solder going into the program, but you, as the facilitator should absolutely know how to solder before instructing the kids. Build this kit on your own and you’ll have enough experience to help them. You can also learn from our mistakes! As you can see in the picture here, we placed the components on top of the board and soldered underneath them. It was pretty tricky at times. Turns out we were assembling it all upside down and should’ve pushed the components up through the other side of the board, then soldered them to the PCB, then trimmed the extra bits off. Easy, right? Now you know.  You’re welcome.

Good stuff

We learned how to solder! It worked*! It was even kind of fun after we got the hang of it. It was cool to see these random pieces become a Real Thing that really did something too.

Frustrations

Instructions, page 1 of 8

*Ok, it sort of worked. Assembling it upside down meant that some of our circuitry was bad. The lights didn’t turn on, and we blew a resistor.

The instructions for this kit are definitely not beginner friendly. Pieces aren’t clearly marked, terminology is not well explained, and everything is crammed together, leaving little white space for the eye (or mind) to rest. If you use this kit, we strongly suggest rewriting your own instructions for the group. Sharon suggested that a intro activity would be giving kids a paper template with paper “components” that they could attach in the correct places. Learning the placement of the components was tricky, and we were glad that we could remove pieces a few times. Another intro activity might be explaining the markings on resistors. At the suggestion of the group leader, we used a resistor calculator to determine what goes where, and this proved to be an invaluable tool. Another helpful guide would be photographs of the different components with their names. For us, never having had to distinguish a capacitor from a diode, the descriptions and electrical schematics were not enough.

Ending Thoughts/Observations

Our robot

Are we glad we attended the Tinker group and tried our hands at soldering? Absolutely. It was scary but rewarding. We can all say that we’ve done it now, and can use that knowledge to gauge our comfort level in trying it out with teens or kids. However, strictly speaking about the kit, it is not one that we would recommend for those just dipping their toes into STEM programming.

Rating

DANGER! WILL ROBINSON!