November 30, 2024

Mission Models and Presentation

The entire team—Coach Will, Coach Ben, Brandon, Leon, Jason, Reina, Wanying, Larry, Daniel, and Olivia—attended our Lego session today. It was wonderful to see all the cheerful and enthusiastic faces gathered together again. With exactly two weeks until the FLL regional tournament, it’s time to finalize our preparations.

Mission Models

Today's session began with a review of the to-do list. Over the past few weeks, the team has been testing the attachments they built and has identified some errors that need to be addressed. The team discussed the division of tasks, and they also need to create spare attachments and an extra robot in case the original sets break. Producing additional attachments and robots serves as valuable practice and is an essential part of effective engineering.

Coding has always been one of the team's favorite aspects of Lego robotics. After working independently on various attachments, the team consolidated all the code into a single program. The team discussed which routes on the mission map require further testing and adjustments, while others are nearly complete.

While the robot's running time is quite limited, some missions are more challenging to complete than others. The team discussed the priority of each mission, aiming to maximize points while minimizing mistakes within the restricted time available.

Presentation

Now, it’s presentation time! Even though the team has thoroughly prepared, articulating everything clearly and presenting it effectively to the judges is still a challenge. The team practiced a complete run-through of the presentation. While there is still plenty of room for improvement, this marks a significant enhancement compared to last week.

Each team member showcased their strengths during the presentation. Leon and Reina spoke with excellent intonation, with Leon maintaining strong eye contact with the audience while Reina exuded confidence.  Olivia delivered her lines smoothly and confidently, without the need for notes. Daniel's voice was clear and projected at a powerful volume. Brandon delivered his message with clarity, speaking at an ideal pace and pausing at just the right moments. Wanying spoke with great volume and at a fast pace. Jason demonstrated significant improvement and spoke with a smile on his face. Larry delivered his lines at an appropriate volume and effectively emphasized key words.

Hands-on Time

The most exciting part of it all is the launch practice. Each launch offers an opportunity to learn from previous attempts and brings the hope of achieving the perfect launch. All team members paid close attention to Coach Will's instructions and approached each launch with care. Whenever there was a success, no matter how small the correction, the team cheered with a big "yay!" and wore huge smiles on their faces.

Poster Boards

With Thanksgiving week upon us, we had extra time to prepare the materials for the presentation. On Friday, Leon, Daniel, Reina, and Olivia gathered at Coach Ben’s house to create the poster boards. 

Many hands make light work! In about three hours, they completed all the poster boards, including selecting photos, printing text, designing, and assembling everything, all while chatting and having fun! (Or, I should say, they truly enjoyed chatting with one another, running around, and getting the work done!) Teamwork makes the dream work!