Deer Lego Mountaineers,

Congratulations on your recent accomplishments. I'm a mentor for a robotics team from a nearby (Houston area) elementary school that is made up of fourth and fifth graders. Our team is named BERT - Bay Elementary Robotics Team. I really enjoyed reading about your team and smiled as I recognized similarities between your recent experience and ours. Our team’s been active for the past 6 seasons. We’ve done pretty well at some locally sponsored tournaments, but two years ago we started going to a state level event. Our first year there I think we may have had the best single run score of the day, but inconsistency caught up with us in the semi-final round and we went home without a trophy. Then last year we focused on consistent performance, and it paid off. We made it to the finals in all three categories and ended up taking home the robot performance award and the director’s award. We’d hoped to repeat our success with the same recipe this year. In two of the three preliminary rounds we achieved the same high score, which made us the third seed in the finals. In the first round of the finals we won, but we could see that the robot was struggling due to low batteries. We changed batteries during rounds, but somehow our robot performed even worse in the next round and we were eliminated. We also again made it into the finals for the robot design and research presentation. But at the end of the day, as they handed out trophies, our school was never called. I tried to remind myself what I’d told the children that morning before the competition ever started – that being at the competition was the icing on the cake and that just by participating and learning everything that they had, that they’d already won – but it was hard to ignore the disappointment in their eyes. As I sat there politely clapping for all the award winners, I too was planning collection of all our belongings and the drive home. After a long ceremony it came time for the director’s award, and they called our school - Bay Elementary. Like you must have been, we were all in shock! After getting up at 4:30 AM to get to the competition, and repeatedly giving our technical and research presentations, and round after round of hoping that the robot performs as you expect, we all let loose. Proving as you said “It’s not over until it’s over.” Congratulations again and best wishes in all your future endeavors.

- Jay

Gerald “Jay” LeBeau

Deputy Chief - Applied Aeroscience and CFD Branch

NASA Johnson Space Center

Houston, Texas

That is sooooooooooooo wonderful. It just goes to show that hard work and teamwork, pays off.

It sounds like you have had a wonderful experience.

All the best, and God Bless, Les

Love you,

Uncle Bill and Aunt Royce

Congratulations Wendy and Amy. Please send my regards to your teammates. What an achievement. I am sure that your Mom and Dad (and Grandma Mullen) are very proud of you.

What a fantastic achievement.

Best regards

Nick