Finch Friday

Finch Friday!

Use the slide deck on this page to onboard your students to the Finch Robot.  They will complete several learning activities that can be done over several days of one week or spread them out on a Finch Friday activity.  

In the speaker notes are some tips and ideas.  The slide deck to the right is good for onboarding students.  Then you can use the Activities found in Teacher Resources or use your creative imagination to create FINCH FRIDAYS!

When they are onboarded, there will have the necessary skills to program the Finch Robot.  On this page are additional resources beyond what is on the slide deck that students can explore or you can use to teach more advanced concepts.

Vocabulary For Coding Finch Robots

• Algorithm - A set of instructions, steps or rules to solve a problem or complete a task written for humans to follow that can be written in different ways

• Pseudocode - A way of writing algorithms that uses plain text English.  A simple way of describing an algorithm

• Flowchart - A diagram that represents an algorithm using standard symbols

• Programming - The process of writing computer code to create a program.   It is translating the steps in an algorithm into a language the computer can understand, so the problem can be solved.

• Programming Language - One of a variety of "languages" that a computer understands.  Examples are Python & JavaScript

• Program - A set of code that 

• Block Coding - A tool that uses drag and drop "blocks" to represent lines of code.  Blocks can contain variables and parameters that influence what the computer does after it reads the code.  Examples are Scratch, Code.org, MakeCode

• Testing & Debugging -  The intentional practice of running a program to see if it works as expected.  If it does not, you look for the part or parts of the code that do not work as expected.

• Iteration - Repeating steps in an algorithm or program. Also called repetition and loops.