We're back again. Still trying to catch up. We're going to be there soon. But, to be able to catch up we have to go through everything, such as my robotics tournament. We did two tournaments and they were amazing. The first tournament was awesome!!! We won 1st place! Woo hoo! But, today we're going to be talking about the second tournament. It was at Lego Land! It was very hard work preparing for the tournament. We did our research project about cells and how they could be affected by cancer and we built a top notch robot named MY NAME IS ____ that could complete an obstacle course on a table. It was so cool! Let me tell you what happened at the tournament though:
X-Treme Team drove to the hotel where we were going to be staying. It was ten minutes away from Lego Land! It was so nice! We checked in then went in the elevator to find our rooms. We got our rooms and relaxed for a little bit. Then, we got to work on several things. We got shirts ready, made dinner, painted the girls nails, filled out some sheets of paper, organized some papers, took showers, and did last minute touch ups on project boards. We then went to bed at 9:00 because we were going to be walking around all day from 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM in Lego Land. We had good dreams filled with lollipops and sugarplums.
We woke up and quickly got ready. The girls and I(we were sharing a room) were all awake at 6:30 getting our hair done in pigtails and ribbons, getting free breakfast from the Marriot, punching holes in papers, putting fake X-Treme team tattoos on our cheeks and doing chants. We then drove to Lego Land.
We got there and checked in, then went to where our station were we would be for the tournament. We put out our boards up and immediately started to work the robot. They had supplied many obstacle tables for the robots. We chose one and started to see if there were any problems going on. Our team programmers got some laptops and started fixing some minor issues. At one point in the morning there was nothing we had to seriously had to get done so we walked around Lego Land chanting some words to some songs. We have some pretty cool ones.
Before I go on talking about the competition I want to tell you what every team is required of. Every team has to build a robot out of legos. We have to program them to do some tasks on a board. Along with building a robot we also have to do a real world research project. Every year there's something new. Last year's project was bio medical engineering. We had to choose a body part and think of things that can go wrong with it. We choose one thing that can go wrong with it then try to figure out a solution for the problem and trying to figure out other questions that come along. You then make a skit explaining all of your research. (our team makes costumes for our skit)
Our research project was on cells. The thing that we chose that could go wrong with it was cancer. At first we only wanted to focus on a certain type then realized that if we could cure one type of cancer we could cure them all. Our solution was a small robot the size of a billionth of a hair that could be shot into your body, identify the cancer cells and then destroy with chemotherapy drugs, special chemicals.
We came across different problems like; How are we going to power the nanite? We thought of kinetic energy (energy from movement) powered from the movement of the blood flow in our body. We came across some strange ideas like using GFP, green florescant protein. It's from glow in the dark jellyfish. Some people at Cal Tech would make jellyfish milkshakes then put it on a certain counter-top and then get power!
The judging for it is really awesome! For the robot they have to do certain tasks on a board. If they do a task they get points. By the end, whoever has the most points wins but, you only get two minutes and thirty seconds. For the research if you have the best project or idea you win. You present your skit in front of judges beforehand. You only have ten minutes to present your skit and for the judges to ask questions.
Well, the first thing we had to go do was present our skit. We got all of our cool costumes on and then headed to a tent where we would do our skit in front of judges. It's a closed area so no one is able to see you and distract you. We did our skit and handed them papers about our team and what our research was about (we had folders for all events). They asked their questions and we answered. We then left and went back to where our station was. All we did was run the robots for a little while. My coach let me go with my family to lunch in Lego Land. I then had to head back.
When I got back I realized that our team had gotten a call back from the judges about our skit. That means that they really liked us. We got back in our costumes and did it again. It was sooooo fun!
By that time we had to go to the arena for the robot obstacle course. There was a huge stage set up with four tables. There were tables back to back. Some of the builders and programmers were going to be running the robots. Only two can be up at a time so our team decided that some people would wait in a line and the other people would tag them for different tasks. Finally our team went up and we did great!
After a little bit of waiting when everything was done it was trophy time. They have lots of different awards. Such as spirit award, best research project, robot performance, best core values and overall. They've got more. (there are seven different core values that say like 'We are a team' 'We have fun' this year there are eight this year, we are also judged on core values and how we use them and apply them to our lives) All the teams were in a small place outside in Lego Land. There was pulpit in the middle and there were all the judges lined up behind it. They called the trophies out and gave thanks to everybody. They then called 'The Spirit Award goes to X-TREME TEAM!'. We ran and high fived all the judges hands and then accepted the award! Yay!!!
The tournament was so fun! Since I enjoyed robotics so much I'm in robotics this year now (2011). I'm still in X-Treme Team. This year's research projest's them is Food Factor, how do keep our food safe. If you want to learn about my team go to:
https://sites.google.com/a/smarteducation.us/x-treme/meet-the-team
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