Well, it’s about that time!  The Spicy Cheetos are working on a T-Shirt design for the Quarter Finals on Saturday.  We get to go to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum this year for our Quarter Final Party. We went to the Corvallis Middle School last year, as some of the families had a conflict during the Evergreen dates.  The boys and I are pretty excited to have a Lego Robotics Tournament in this amazing facility!

We started a couple of weeks late, didn’t get our Kit til really late, missed a week with my Grandmother’s funeral and Darren’s Lung appointment, then missed a week while the host family dealt with illness. This whole time I’ve fought the feeling of being “behind”. However, the program works, the tasks are simple, and precept builds on precept. Skill on skill.  Last night the group finalized their Project Presentation for the Food Challenge. They still have a few costume items to finish on Wednesday. They were able to present their materials to the Operations Manager of the Lincoln City Food Bank, and were able to give her an example of how their solution would help the facility.  I’m really excited to see this pull together. They have one more field trip on Friday to present their findings to a company in town, then I’ll share with you after Saturday what they came up with!

The robot is really exciting this year, the kids worked as a whole group to design and build the robot from scratch. Not one single written page of instruction for the NXT robot or the attachments. I’m really excited that they are going to tournament with a very unique design. It was heart wrenching to watch the days go by, with no robot . . . then the week it was built, was the week everyone got sick. AACCKK. Remembering the Core Values, remembering what the kids are supposed to be learning, and that just being ready for tournament is not the end goal kept my head on track, and allowed the group to have the freedom to create and learn.  Oh man. So hard to watch practice after practice the robot be torn apart and rebuilt!

But it was worth it! The team has several of the missions 95% accurate with execution. They did quite a bit of programing with the Prototype Robots that were built, and it showed  how much they learned  on Saturday and Monday with how quickly they could calculate what the Robot should do. They, again, on Sunday rebuilt the Robot – and I think this final product is amazing. We love the space we are able to use, one of the team member’s basements. It has a kitchen and restroom, and close enough space so team members may float back and forth and be involved with the Game and Program. There isn’t an internet connection available downstairs, which has pushed the team to bring in Auto Building Mentors, Programing Mentors, Books, and Pull together for Fresh Ideas instead of following another plan.

Can you tell I’m really excited!  I’ll wait til after Saturday to show you their NXT Robot – Wish us Luck and Fun Times – No dropping the NXT – Open Communication and FUN TIMES at the Tournament on Saturday!  Go Spicy Cheetos!!!