August 3, 2024

Season Kick-off 

We officially kicked off the 2024-2025 season today! 

It was awesome to have all eight kids in the same room again!

Focus Areas

Today's session began with homework presentations. Every kid pitched two areas they would like to focus/lead/own this season. The focus areas included but were not limited to poster board, engineering notebook, robot design, coding, innovation project, skit creation, and presentation. Coach Will entered their names in an online table. Some areas were more popular than the others, but all areas were filled.

Review

Coach Will reviewed the team's summer research topics ranging from ocean pollution to global warming to ocean farming. After announcing that FLL will launch the SUBMERGED Season this Tuesday (August 6th), he recapped two of the lessons the team learned last year: the engineering design process (identify, design, create, iterate, and communicate) and the components of storytelling (character, setting, plot, conflict, and resolution).

Blanket Game

Last but not least, the team played the blanket game. To win the game, you need to stay on the blanket all the time while flipping the blanket over and making the blanket flat again. The kids first tried to do it with all eight of them on the blanket, but that proved too hard. They decided to tackle a simpler problem to get the hang of it. With four people on the blanket, they fast iterated and stumbled upon a winning strategy. After a few more successful trials, they scaled back to the eight-on-the-blanket problem. Smoothly they solved it, in under 40 seconds. The kids challenged the five parents in the room to the game. The parents happily accepted the challenge and finished in 25 seconds! What a fun game to learn problem solving and teamwork! 

Everyone was excited and looking forward to a great new season!