PledgeCents Preferred Partner Highlight: Birdbrain Technologies

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The Vision

"My name is Tom Lauwers, and I founded BirdBrain Technologies to turn two research projects I had worked on as a Ph.D. student at Carnegie Mellon into commercially available products. At the time BirdBrain was founded, the research behind the Finch Robot and Hummingbird Robotics Kit had been running for four years, and for each project we had built 100 prototypes to test in schools. The most common thing we heard during these pilot tests from teachers was, “How can we buy these?” BirdBrain Technologies was founded as the answer to this question.
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The BirdBrain Technologies Team

Since then, we have bootstrapped it through seven years of consistent growth, several new product offerings, and the creation of an awesome team that is hyper-focused on helping educators. Throughout this journey, we have never lost touch with our origins and the purpose and values of the research: simply put, we believe that project-based learning, making, and coding should be experienced by all students, and the only way to ensure that all students are reached is by focusing on integration with existing curriculum and standards. Teachers seem to intuit this naturally, and we frequently elevate excellent curricular modules created in schools using our products; for example, a robot poetry module for middle schoolers that covers English language arts, science, engineering, and computer science standards.

Our products serve as catalysts – they do nothing on their own, but in combination with the right set of ingredients, they can greatly accelerate a reaction. In this role, we stand ready to help you create transformative learning experiences for your students."
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Founder, BirdBrain Technologies LLC

The Product

The Hummingbird Robotics Kit allows students to create and program robots, kinetic sculptures, and animatronics, built out of a combination of electronic components and crafting materials. A product of the Carnegie Mellon University CREATE Lab, Hummingbird is designed to inspire and enable creative engineering, robotics, and making activities for ages 8 and up.

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Combined with very easy-to-use software environments like Scratch, Snap!, the CREATE Lab Visual Programmer, and Ardublock, Hummingbird provides a great way to introduce kids to robotics and engineering with construction materials that they are already familiar with. At the same time, Hummingbird continues to provide new challenges by allowing programming in the Arduino environment, Python, Java, and Processing, and by supporting Raspberry Pi.

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The Finch is a small robot designed to inspire and delight students learning computer science by providing them a tangible and physical representation of their code. The Finch robot has support for over a dozen programming languages, including environments appropriate for students as young as five years old. If you are looking for an engaging computer science learning experience, check out the Finch!

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The Testimonial

We interviewed Brett Slezak, a teacher at Springdale Jr.-Sr. High School, to share his experience using BirdBrain Technologies in his classroom.

1.How did you learn about BirdBrain Technologies?

"One summer, another teacher I work with took an Arts & Bots training at Carnegie Mellon University with the very first iteration of the Hummingbird Kit. When she brought it back to share with our district I was immediately hooked. We have been using hummingbirds for the past 5 years now at our school district, and I have seen everything from dragons, robotic joints, poetry and opera’s made with them"

2.How do you utilize the Hummingbird Robotics Kit in your classroom? What are the benefits?

"In our 7th grade Health and Physical Education classes at Springdale Jr./Sr. High School, we use the Hummingbird Kits to build robotic joints. Ideally, we are trying to get the students to discover through trial and error how complimentary movement works with muscles in the body. Building a robot, that is not your typical “battle bot” is a way more engaging way for a middle schooler to learn about biomechanics than just a lecture and some diagrams. However, the best part about it is that when the students use the Hummingbird Kit for this project the learn about programming, engineering, design process, collaboration, communication and self-reflection. When the projects are all said and done, the learning is so much richer than just an out of the box project, that it seems like the learning about biomechanics is just the tip of the iceberg."

3.What would you say to another teacher who may be hesitant about trying a new #edtech product in their classroom?

"Undertaking a new piece of #edtech into any class can be a high-anxiety situation for a lot of teachers. However, because the Hummingbird Kit has such an easy entry point for coding, robotics and making it is a logical place to take that proverbial first step. The learning curve is so gentle, I have even gone as far as co-building a robot with my 3 year old daughter. It can definitely be a scary thing to take on a new piece of technology, but if you are a teacher that is hesitant to adopt new technology, I would suggest to just go for it. Failing, reiterating, and coming back at tough problems is how we expect our students to learn and grow in our own classrooms. I think it is just as important to give ourselves permission to expect the same growth mindset of ourselves."

*Brett was not compensated for this post

Because Every Cent Counts

PledgeCents Team

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