September 28, 2017

Today, we started talking about snow as a possible Project topic. Both of our coaches say their kids like to dig forts into the big piles of snow that snowplows push into their yards, and the parents are always worried that it's going to collapse. We could look at ways to make snow play safer.

Cooper didn't think it was a good idea. He thought snow forts wouldn't qualify as an appropriate HYDRO DYNAMICS project.

Vote totals at the end of the meeting:

• Sprinklers - 1
• Shower pad - 3
• Snow forts - 2
• Don't care - 1

We don't have agreement from everyone, so no decision yet.

                                                                 Until next time, keep building!

September 23, 2017

Max and Soren finished building the arm today. It's pretty cool! It fits around the chassis and brain, so it can flip over to either the front or the back of the robot.

 

Afterward, we accidentally let Max's dog Lucy out, and had to chase her around the neighborhood.

                                                                 Until next time, keep building!

September 19, 2017

Today, Max earned his title "Designated Adult." It was his turn to run practice, and he decided that we all needed to put away the LEGO and work on Project, since we don't have a Project at all yet. Coach Steve was sad, but he said it's good that at least one person is adult enough to say we need to do Project work. We looked for ideas about lawn sprinklers and shower heads.

                                                                 Until next time, keep building!

Meet the Team!

Here is the info on every member of the Brickstormers Team!

Cody

Jobs: MyBlock creator, Core Values challenge designer
Interests: Video Games, Plush Toys, Pokémon
Years in FLL: 4
Fun Fact: I have almost 100 plush toys!

Cooper

Jobs: Building big attachments
Interests: Sports, video games, books
Years in FLL: 3
Fun Fact: One of my friends does not like cheese and bread.
Joe

Jobs: building and dropping fancy things
Interests: Making new LEGO animals
Years in FLL: 2
Fun Fact: Likes omelets

Max
Jobs: Building, being the designated adult
Interests: Football, Cello
Years in FLL: 3
Fun Fact: He has played the cello for 4 years





Spencer

Jobs: Building, being bossy (in a good way)
Interests: Baseball, snowboarding
Years in FLL: 5
Fun Fact: Part of the original Brickstormers


Soren

Jobs: Building, having enthusiasm
Interests: Acting, video games
Years in FLL: 3
Fun Fact: Soren went on tour for a play (Matilda).








Vaughan

Jobs: Programming, fidgeting
Interests: Video games, Video games and Video games
Years in FLL: 1
Fun Fact: He has played piano for 3 months






And now, the Coaches!

Stephen (Steve)

Jobs: Coach
Interests: Lego
Years Coaching: 5
Fun Fact: My real job is programming supercomputers to do scientific simulations.




Tara

Jobs: Coach, wrestling referee, snack provider
Interests: Core Values
Years Coaching: 5
Fun Fact: By day, I am an IT consultant.  By night, we play with LEGO and enjoy watching the team complete Core Value challenges and play a little Pokémon too.

That's the whole team!

                                                            Until next time, keep building!

September 12, 2017

So here's the plan.

1. Drive north from Base, using a rack-and-pinion arm (called Mater, in honor of a similar attachment we used in TRASH TREK) to do Filter, Pump Addition, and Rain. Run into the pump to complete Flow.
2. Drive east from Base, pushing a cart (Robin) to the Fountain to deliver a Big Water as the robot drives past. The robot will have a huge arm that can flip over the top of the robot. Use it to flip the manhole cover, and throw the yellow pipe base to Base. Drive over the ramp, flip the other manhole cover, and use the arm to flip the firetruck over the robot to put out the fire. Take a penalty to return to Base.
3. Drive east from Base to go do the Faucet, Slingshot, and Water Well.

Over the weekend, Max and Soren spent five hours starting to build attachments. Max built Robin (which works really well), and Soren accidentally found an idea for flipping the manhole covers.

                                                                 Until next time, keep building!

September 7, 2017

Today, we decided that our Missions spreadsheet didn't really indicate which Missions were best: with only a couple of exceptions (that are really difficult), they're all about the same number of points. It looks like high-scoring teams will be the ones who just do a lot of missions. So, we're going to look for mission runs that can include several different missions in one run.

                                                                 Until next time, keep building!