Programming Robots in Computer Science Class

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There are some special guests in upper school science this week: robots! In Michael Masterson’s Introduction to Computer Science class, students are spending the week learning how to program Finch robots. In the process, they will learn more about programming languages, as well as what it takes to program robots to perform sequence of tasks.   

 

The Finch robots are the result of a four-year project of Carnegie Mellon’s CREATE lab, and they are specifically designed to assist in high school computer science classes. The robots are equipped with wheels, sensors, lights, and speakers. The students programs them using Java (or a number of other languages). Students can program them with a sequence of commands that can be as simple as rolling forward three inches and stopping, or as complex as creating a line drawing of the Mona Lisa while playing a Bach sonata with an accompanying LED light show.

 

Throughout the year, Masterson’s class will cover much more than robotics, including command line computing, Java programming, and creating web pages. If you would like to know more about the finch robot, click on this link to visit the Finch website (http://www.finchrobot.com/).