In the last 10 years we have reached over 250,000 students with our free robot loans!

BirdBrain Technologies’ Finch Robot loan program loans out the Finch Robot 2.0 to districts, schools, libraries, and other organizations across the United States. This free program is our effort to reach students who may not otherwise get the chance to program a robot during their normal school day.

We generally loan Finch Robots to an organization for 2 months. We expect the students to work using pair programming, so 2 students work together with each Finch Robot.

Applications for 2023/2024 school year loans are currently closed. We will reopen applications in December for spring and summer 2024.

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250K+

Over 250,000 students have programmed a Finch due to the loan program.

1000

Currently, 1000 robots are pledged to the program for 2023/24.

1400+

Over 1400 organizations have participated in the Finch loan program since 2013.

As of January 2022, we are lending out
the Finch Robot 2.0!

The new Finch, which launched in late 2020, supports students of any age and comes with free, asynchronous PD courses. It works with all major operating systems and both laptops and tablets.

Applications for spring and summer 2024 will open in December 2023. Before you apply please read the program requirements, criteria for loan selection, and FAQs.

Program Requirements

  • Use the robots in pair programming. This means 2 students work with 1 Finch robot at a time. If the largest class you will use the robots with is 30 students, you should apply for a loan of 15 robots.
  • Reach at least 5 students per robot. So, if you borrow 10 Finches, at least 50 students need to work with them over the course of the loan period.
  • Have one computer or tablet available per Finch you will borrow.
  • Give us feedback by answering our post-loan survey and sending us curriculum you create, so we can host it on our website for the benefit of other organizations using the Finches.
  • Invest time in teacher training by perusing our website and preparing lessons, in order to effectively run programming with the Finch robots.
  • Applicants must be based in the United States due to the complexities of shipping loaned devices internationally.

Criteria for Loan Selection #1

A Strong Plan for Using the Finches

Our top criteria for selection will be the strength of your plan for using the Finch robots. We have found that the strongest loan recipients are the ones that apply for the program with a concrete plan for:

  • How they will use the robots, including examples of specific activities they are planning.
  • How often they will use the robots. We especially favor programs using the Finches in multiple classes or settings (e.g. in the school library with multiple classes coming to use the Finches each day, both during the school day and after school, both in classroom and in community settings.)
  • How teachers will prepare to use the robots.

Criteria for Loan Selection #2

Reaching Students

The loan program is designed to expand the reach of our robots to populations who may have limited access to computer science. Thus, we will give precedence to organizations that

  • Serve populations traditionally under-represented in computer science (e.g. girls, minorities, rural areas).
  • Have a large number of students in free/reduced lunch programs.
  • Reach a large number of students.

We also believe programming is a fundamental and basic skill, not an advanced topic. We understand that many districts set up specific “gifted and talented” programs. We will consider applications from GATE teachers, but we prefer to see applications that will democratically use the robots across student populations. If you are a GATE teacher, please include ways for your students to share the robots with their peers, community members, or younger students.

Criteria for Loan Selection #3

Community Engagement

Libraries & schools act as great equalizers by providing resources to people in the community who may not have access to tools for computer science learning at home. Thus, we will favor applications that show a level of community engagement using the robots:

  • At school events, Maker Faires, or other community festivals.
  • At conferences, EdCamps, or other professional development events.
  • With older students teaching younger students, or other types of mentoring relationships.

Ready to get started?

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