Thoughts on Finch Robotics?

[quiktake]

http://www.finchrobot.com/

I am building a robotics program/curriculum from scratch at my middle school for 6th and 7th graders as well as after school teams. I have a huge amount of experience with Lego robotics, but I find that students often struggle with programming and just keep trying to play with Legoes. (Nothing wrong with that, but I am trying to push them beyond that level.)

I like the price and the buzz about the Finch robotics system. They even loan to schools so that schools have a chance to trial them. Price is about $90 compared to Lego robotics programming of $400 plus site licences.


Any thoughts for experiences with Finch robotics here? I prefer something with visual object based programming if any alternatives are offered. Arduino's are a bit too "hard-core" for beginners.

 

[Eulogy]

That looks pretty ok.
In high school, we had the Parallax Boe-Bots, which were pretty cool, though I think a fair amount more expensive than the Finch. We also competed in FIRST Robotic competitions, which was very cool - both from the competition aspect, as well as the networking.

Do you feel taking away the LEGO aspect will get them to focus on the programming aspect? My concern would be a total loss on interest all together.