It's that time of year again when I devote several weekends to judging the LEGO robotics competition - 40 teams this weekend, 40 more next weekend, and 20 in December. This year's theme is
Senior Solutions, so all the robot missions have something to do with aging. This team is trying to push the little blue "quilts" into position, and then turn off the TV on the way back to base. The orange blocks to the left of their robot are "medicine bottles." The object is to bring the green bottle (you can barely see it in the picture) back to base and leave the orange ones where they are.
This team was named
Splat. They made their own t-shirts (a little hard to see in the picture) by "splattering" bright-colored paint across the fronts. I can imagine the mess they probably created when they painted their shirts. The berets they were wearing were made out of big, shiny sequins that really captured the light coming in from the skylights. They brought a real senior to the contest. I
give that woman credit - she sat in that chair for the entire day while
the girls went through the different judging events.
A week ago, the Girl Scouts sponsored a
Practice Scramble. I gave them
feedback on their research presentations and robot strategy. This brand new team of 4th-graders didn't have their skit prepared, but they wanted to show everyone their team dance. If nothing else, they sure had the "cute" factor going for them. We ended the night with the thing kids love to do most - eat pizza.
