Now that we've made it to State, we have decided to perfect our missions. This includes making the missions we currently have more consistent, as well as adding other missions we haven't tried yet, such as the ramp and the medicine bottles. We also thought about missions we might want to remove due too the time limitations. We started by splitting up into two groups, a consistency team who worked on the missions we have already programmed, and an experimental team who is currently working on the medicine bottles.
   

Sierra, Coach K, Badger and Beej working on the robot runs.

   Tomorrow we will try to fit in two blogs, one about the day's work and another about our outreach at the Scott Air Force Base Youth Center on Wednesday.

Our Experiences at the Competition

Hey this is Poppy here! I can't believe we made it to state!!! The competition was so much fun. We got to see other people's ideas and talk with a little girl who was interested in FLL. We lived and breathed our core values by sharing ideas with others, encouraging others in their success and downfall, and having fun dancing and laughing. A memorable moment was during our core values where we all had to make (using our bodies) a dog sled. It was hysterical!! Well I have to go now. I hope to see you at State!! 

Celbrating at Dr. Jazz Soda Fountain

Now turning it over to Sage......

Hi there! This is Sage, we are playing hot seat (which means same computer different people) blog tonight, because we are all so excited to talk about the competition! So, on with it. First of all, Happy Thanksgiving. We made it to state! And it soooo exciting! We were excited because, I mean, we've been working SUPER hard to make it, and we did! Plus, we get to go to Chicago! We managed to get the highest point award because of any awesome run by Beej and Bruce that scored us 346 points! We yelled so loud that Poppy and I were hoarse for about 10 minutes, but we got some water, and our voices were fine just in time for our research, but it certainly helped with our old lady voices :) We also got the Champions Award, with is basically means that we did an excellent job overall. I've got to go help some more now. See you at State!!

Here's Bruce.......

 Showing off

This year we competed in Illinois instead of the past two years, which we did in Missouri, and I have to say, It was pretty sweet. I'm so glad McKendree could host an FLL competition, and it was such an enjoyable experience. Beej and I scored the best run with 346 points! We had a great time competing with and meeting other teams, as well as fellowship with each other. Being my third FLL competition, I think it was the most memorable and most fun, and best of all, we're moving on! Can't wait to go to state! Working just as hard as before to surpass the status quo and do our best up in Chicago :D.

Now Hazel......

 DA EX BOTS

 Last week was our first competition of this season at McKendree University in Illinois. We won the Champions Award and were nominated for several others. We also have a Golden Ticket for the State Competition in Chicago! It was so much fun at the competition, meeting other teams and sharing research project ideas. I'm so proud of my teammates and how hard we all worked this season! We're gonna work even harder now that we're going to State. It will be the biggest FLL competition I've ever been to, with 60 teams! The competition will be tough, but I know my teammates and I can beat the pressure and perform as well as we always do. I hope to see you guys at the competition!! 

 Now turning it over to Zake: 

Last week we went to Mckendree University in Illinois.   I had a lot of fun and got to fellowship with other teams.  There were some teams that we know, like the Robo Bro's.  Our robot did really well and got first place. :)

Awards Ceremony...looking cool

Congratulations Champions!

Howdy! Sierra here.  The competition was a BUNCH of fun. It was the smallest competition I've been to,with only 14 or so teams, but it was still AWESOME!!! There were mostly rookie teams there, so we got to do a little mentoring. One cool thing about that was that the other two teams who advanced to state were rookies! Kind of reminds me of our rookie season two years ago:) Also, a big congrats to VX3, a first-time team in our homeschool group, who advanced to State with us. Great job, guys!!!!

Note VX3's awesome ballooon hats:)

The other team was a team that we mentored slightly during our community outreach to the boyscouts. We're soooooo excited for everyone!!Thanks for everyone's support, especially the parents!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, I was the last one (except for Beej and Badger, who couldn't make it...), so bye for now!

*Sierra

On to STATE!

And we're back, with a short update about the competition!!!!

It went GREAT. Our highest score was 346 points, which put us in 1st place! For that we got the Robot Performance Award. Our other award was the CHAMPION'S AWARD,which is the biggest award in FLL!!!! Also, we're going to STATE in Chicago!!!

Here are a few pictures....

Us waiting for Technical Judging

Us with the other teams who are going to State.

Our best run.

We were really nervous before Research!

Well, except for maybe Sage and Poppy!

.

This is our research presentation to the judges.

Beej showing people our robot.

Sage setting up for a run.

Our Core Values Judging.

Celebrating!!!

More celebrating at Dr. Jazz, a local restaurant.

We hope that you enjoyed our blog post. Just as a quick note, we're taking the week off,so there won't be any more blog posts until next Monday. Also, since we wanted to give an update about the competition, Coach G made an exception about the rule of doing blog posts at meetings so we won't leave our readers on pins and needles!

~Sierra and Zake

A Quick Catch-Up

It's been awhile (literally), but we are back!!!

Unfortunately Coach G had to go out of town, so he was absent for 3 meetings, which is why we have not been posting. (That and we were lazy.....just kidding :) This has been a hectic, crazy, chaotic (along with any  other synonyms, as you see fit) week as we are coming upon the COMPETITION!!!!!! We have been finishing up our last mission along with ending Mission 2. We also have been editing, polishing, and practicing our skit for the COMPETITION (did we mention that was next Sunday.) Along with getting some pretty interesting, weird, odd, annoying, and overall fantastic props. (Including a hat that makes me look like I am going to a funeral; It is black, with tulle coming out the back and did I mention a random BUTTERFLY coming out of nowhere....and some nerdy glasses......in case you were wondering I am an old woman who breaks her hip @ Poppy). 

Here is our skit (unfortunately, Poppy was absent, so Coach G had to play her part):

Including our hilarious skit, we have been working on our core values for the COMPETITION (did we mention that was coming on Sunday the 18th of November...AHHHHH!!!!!!!) Being a team is kind of hard at times, but it's starting to come naturally seeing as we get together 3 days a week, 7 hours a day sometimes.

Finally we split up into robot run teams. Team 1 has Zake, Beej, and Badger.Team 2 has Poppy, Sage, and Bruce. Team 3 has Sierra and Hazel. We have begun to do practice robot runs in preparation for the COMPETITION. Unfortunately, this is our last meeting till the COMPETITION, so we're practicing feverishly on the Research Judging (including the infamous skit), the Core Values Judging, the Technical Judging, and the Robot Runs.

Our Robot Excel III:

Recently we finished our model of the gyro-belt:

As you can see, it is made of duct tape that resembles, supposedly metal (as the boys say :).

Our belt has 4 boxes each with one gyroscope inside. It also has a battery pack in the back wired to each gyroscope. Normally a senior does not know that they are falling until they are on the ground (Mr. B a physical therapist) When a senior starts to tip, the gyroscopes will give a little resistance to let the senior know they are tipping. 

We hope to see you at the competition; it promises to be a lot of fun!!! We advise coming from 12-3 pm for the robot runs, as observers cannot see the judging, which is in the morning. Oh, and did we mention that it's FREE?! See you there (hopefully).  

~Poppy, Sierra, and Hazel

 

Duct Tape, Visitor & Victory

                                            

                                          We had a guest today, by the name of Mr. Hooten.

The team, explaining to Mr. Hooten all about FLL.

We performed our skit tonight for the first time, and well, it didn't go very smoothly. But it was hilarious..

We also were measured by our wonderful adult "mentors" for our duct tape accessories.

 We started Mission 4, renamed Mission 1.5, and continued to work Mission 2.

We have to go for now, but check in Friday!

~ Sage and Beej

Today we first went over core values and explained how we used them in the past meetings. Next we split up into small teams. The first team worked on our prototype.Then the next team worked on the research . The research team found how gyroscopes work.The last team worked on the skit .The skit team had almost finished the skit.Later on we got a 

mission team together and finished the dog and the quilt.Last the mission team worked on the bowling mission.        

Masters Lyceum Outreach

Masters Lyceum is a Homeschool co-op that meets on Fridays which most of our team and other teams attend. Today, we and four other homeschool teams met and did a demonstration with the RoboRaiders, VX3, Robo Bros and Sparta Nation. Their were around two-hundred families who attended. 

The other teams gave us some pointers and we gave them some too. 

Stay tuned for next time!

~ Poppy and Beej