We Did It!

Today, our team competed in our first competition of the season, in Newhall, California.  We had a fantastic time competing, and I believe that Emily and Kelly enjoyed it.  It was surprising how well run this competition was and how quickly we moved from event to event.

One thing that surprised me was that they held to the five minute rule for the research presentation.  In all of our competitions for the past five years we have never been held to that rule.  At first we were very upset because in past years our research has always been the strongest aspect of our team.  

We were pleasantly surprised when our robot did relatively well, although we did have a few problems with some of the missions.  One of the things that I learned was that I really need to take a few seconds and aim the robot before launching some of the programs.  Our team found that when we tried to rush through the missions, the robot often messed up, and we had over thirty seconds to spare.

On our last round on the playing field, our team met and decided that we needed to slow down and take our time aiming.  It was rather hard because in my mind I expected the buzzer to ring at any moment.  Just as the robot finished the mission that we had assigned it, the buzzer rang.  We had completed all most all of the missions that we had programmed!

The LEGO Mountaineers were so excited about the day.  We had a few disappointments, and our robot still had a few bugs that we needed to work out, but we still felt good about the competition.

This year, our team was awarded the teamwork award and the robot design award.  This is wonderful because we had really struggled with the robot in the past years.

Our team has learned a lot at this competition.  We have learned what worked or didn't work and what we needed to fix.  Also Emily and Kelly learned what a competition was like.

I am so proud of them, they did a wonderful job both on the field and during the presentations.  If we have time, we will be training them how to aim the robot, so that they can pilot next week.  

This has been a wonderful experience.  I can't wait the next competition.

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