Designing the Finch: Creating a Robot Aligned to Computer Science Concepts

Abstract

We present a new robot platform, the Finch, that was designed to align with the learning goals and concepts taught in introductory computer science courses. The Finch was developed in the context of the CSbots program, the goal of which is to improve retention and learning in computer science courses through the use of robots and other physically embodied hardware. This paper concentrates on design constraints that were determined in earlier CSbots studies and how those constraints were instantiated by the Finch. We also present some preliminary results from pilot studies in which Finch robots were used in CS1 and CS2 classes