August 9, 2024

New Season Innovation Project

Finally! The details of the innovation project were released on Tuesday. The High Blocks team dived into the exciting game missions right away! 

Innovation Project

Today’s session started with watching the game mission videos. There are a total of 15 game missions and a few precision tokens. Our challenge this season is to tackle a problem faced by people who explore the oceans. 

The team read about Project Sparks, which introduced a marine biologist, a submarine pilot, and an oceanographer, along with the major tasks of their positions. All three roles are exciting and present unique challenges and questions that inspire us with innovative project ideas. 

The team continued brainstorming creative ideas to support 3D ocean farming. Larry suggested an underwater training base, while Leon proposed making a boat cheaply to help reduce the cost of ocean farming activities. Reina, on the other hand, wanted to create underwater drones to help monitor the farming status.

Then Coach Ben refreshed the team’s memory with Brandon’s excellent drawing of the 3D ocean farm, which included underwater robots, solar panels on the surface, and robots to help harvest kelp. This idea checked the most boxes on the "common themes in sparks" list.

Next, the team delved into the problems of 3D ocean farming. Some interesting ideas included creating a robot to break ice for winter ocean farming and a seaweed harvesting machine to efficiently replace manual labor.

Building Attachments

In the mission strategy session led by Coach Will, the team examined the point values of each mission. Coach Will then taught the team how to build attachments for their projects. One very important thing to remember is, “Do not pick up LEGO pieces immediately.” The team used a 3-step thinking process to start building the attachments.

At the end of the session, each person picked a mission model and began working on the attachments.

But, as with all fun activities, accidents happen too. In the middle of attachment building, Leon accidentally knocked over a LEGO bin containing a thousand tiny pieces. 

Without hesitation, the nearby members quickly gathered to help. Many hands make light work. Within a minute or two, all the tiny pieces were picked up and put back where they belonged! It was an effective emergency rescue and an excellent display of teamwork!