Wonderful Time as State!

All 62 teams crowded into this pit area. Our team is in the front center with the rainbow feather hats.

We went to state last Saturday. It was a great time of meeting with 62 other teams all over Colorado. We were jammed packed into the pit area, but the kids didn't mind. It gave them easier access to network and meet new people.

Our robot didn't perform as well at State because we were having battery issues. For some unknown reason, the two NXT recharageable batteries I bought ran out of juice even before the end of the 2.5 minute robot run. When you have a bad battery, it also affects how the robot performs. I may be switching to good ole alkaline for next year. At least that way I can count on the backups. I was so proud that none of the boys got really stressed out about it. They were disappointed, but no one "lost" it. However, they got to see Gracious Professionalism in action when one other team was kind enough to loan us their WORKING NXT recharagable backup battery. Wow! We were quite blessed and our robot worked fine again for the last two out of five rounds. I sent both batteries back for Lego Education to check out.

The boys did improve on their project presentation. It worked out so much better after we brought in a very experienced public speaker and debater who also happened to be a sister to one of the kids. She went through every single kid and pointed out what they could do to improve. It helped tremendously and the boys did better than at regionals.

So we all came away happy that it was a positive experience. Everyone who participates in state gets a medal, but only the really exceptional teams win further trophies. And only one team goes to the World Festival.

As for me, I'm glad to have a break until we start thinking of Senior Solutions!

Robot Performance 1st Place

Wow! After a very long day that lasted 10 hours our Mindstorms Maniacs came away with the #1 Robot Performance Award. This award is based on the points your robot scores on the table runs. We had 3 chances to practice in the morning and 3 real runs in the afternoon. Our afternoon scores were 122, 155 and 153. That may not seem a lot out of the total possible 452, but this year's challenges didn't assign a very high point value for any one activity. I don't know how much higher we are compared to the other 45 groups we competed against. I'll wait for the final results on the Southern Colorado Qualifier site.

Yes, this is within regulation height!

The kids really had a good time and enjoyed showing off their robot. One of our attachments barely came under the 16 inches when attached to the robot so it was humungous! Kids got a kick out of seeing what it was capable of accomplishing.

Also during competition we found so much variation in the tables that it wasn't easy getting as high of a score as we did during our practices. The team knew it was pretty pointless to try any major re-programming of our robot during the day. They mostly practiced their hand offs and pulling off and putting on attachments.

The day went smoothly and the kids had a great time having to interact with other teams during the alliance rounds. Alliance rounds are when 2-3 teams pick their best missions that run consistently and try to combine to get the highest score during the 2.5 minutes. This really got our kids out of their shell in having to interact and really take a look at other people's robot build and strategy for solving the problem.

The crowd of parents and supporters.

The folks who organized this year's tournament did not disappoint. UCCS is a great facility to have this tournament in. Nothing was too far away and parking was free! Thanks to all the volunteers who put on this valuable event for our kids. They learned how to talk to judges on a very professional level explaining their projects and robot designs. They had to problem solve as a team on the spot and mostly they learned how to respond to high pressure situations with a lot of grace for one another and for other teams.

Our fearless MC.

We also qualified for the Colorado State Championships for the first time this year. It's free and open to the public, but you do have to pay for parking. It's on December 10th at DU. Come cheer us on if you are in the neighborhood. Here we go again!