Sunday 12/6/09 from 4pm-6pm @ KI
Thursday 12/10/09 from 6pm-8pm @ Hornberger's House
Sunday 12/13/09 from 4pm-6pm @ KI
Wednesday 12/16/09 from 6pm-8pm @ Hornberger's House
Wednesday 12/30/09 from 6pm-8pm @ Hornberger's House
Sunday, November 29, 2009
Team Meetings Between Thanksgiving and New Years
The day, date, time and location of our planned meetings between Thanksgiving and New Years are listed below...
Sunday 12/6/09 from 4pm-6pm @ KI
Sunday 12/6/09 from 4pm-6pm @ KI
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Meeting #6 - 11/21/09
Our last meeting prior to Thanksgiving, if you haven't yet please logon to the doodle page to show what meeting times will work for you so we can schedule our meetings from now until 2010! Click below to link to the Doodle page...
The team did some brainstorming on their main challenge today. They have at least one rough concept involving a robotic garbage can that changes someones life. The person whose life changes is a cranky person who throw their recyclables into the garbage can, the garbage can is able to somehow detect this and rejects the recyclables in some way, potentially by either having a mouth open or by being thrown out somehow. This action by the robot garbage can changes their life and they become a happy recycling person. At least that is how I think it went! The robots actions cannot be started with "direct physical contact" this lead to an interesting diversion where the team brainstormed ways to cause things to happen without "direct physical contact" which led to an interesting game or rolling a small roll of electrical tape down a ramp, into a pop up power unit, which knocked over a pyramid of cups. I have some pictures of the action so check out the photo album, this was completely spontaneous and unplanned.
We did a couple of instant challenges also. One involved rotating squares with letters on them to try and create words. The challenge was kind of a dud. They decided to do "boys vs. girls" and for the record the girls won ;-)
We also did a challenge where the team had to take six "coins" (we actually used pieces of paper) half heads and half tails and reverse their positions by flipping and jumping the coins, etc. The trick was there was a very easily solution where you just flip the position by moving the object they are on, in this case we had the "coins" on a wheeled table. For the first go around the team flipped all over and it took 6 moves, when told there was an easier solution Luke quickly realized you just spun the table around, these DI kids are way to smart!
They then did a performance based IC where they had to use a blanket as a prop and have a story with a mystery, a clue, and a solution. Their story involved a dementor (a creature from Harry Potter) who loses a shoe while attacking someone leading the investigators to find the dementors.
That's it for this weeks meeting, remember to go to Doodle to indicate what meeting times will work for you so we can schedule our next batch of meetings.
The team did some brainstorming on their main challenge today. They have at least one rough concept involving a robotic garbage can that changes someones life. The person whose life changes is a cranky person who throw their recyclables into the garbage can, the garbage can is able to somehow detect this and rejects the recyclables in some way, potentially by either having a mouth open or by being thrown out somehow. This action by the robot garbage can changes their life and they become a happy recycling person. At least that is how I think it went! The robots actions cannot be started with "direct physical contact" this lead to an interesting diversion where the team brainstormed ways to cause things to happen without "direct physical contact" which led to an interesting game or rolling a small roll of electrical tape down a ramp, into a pop up power unit, which knocked over a pyramid of cups. I have some pictures of the action so check out the photo album, this was completely spontaneous and unplanned.
We did a couple of instant challenges also. One involved rotating squares with letters on them to try and create words. The challenge was kind of a dud. They decided to do "boys vs. girls" and for the record the girls won ;-)
We also did a challenge where the team had to take six "coins" (we actually used pieces of paper) half heads and half tails and reverse their positions by flipping and jumping the coins, etc. The trick was there was a very easily solution where you just flip the position by moving the object they are on, in this case we had the "coins" on a wheeled table. For the first go around the team flipped all over and it took 6 moves, when told there was an easier solution Luke quickly realized you just spun the table around, these DI kids are way to smart!
They then did a performance based IC where they had to use a blanket as a prop and have a story with a mystery, a clue, and a solution. Their story involved a dementor (a creature from Harry Potter) who loses a shoe while attacking someone leading the investigators to find the dementors.
That's it for this weeks meeting, remember to go to Doodle to indicate what meeting times will work for you so we can schedule our next batch of meetings.
Sunday, November 15, 2009
Meeting #5 - 11/14/09
Down one team member the team discussed challenge selections again today. All present have settled on Challenge B - DI-BOT. The team did some brainstorming on ideas for this challenge. The challenge involves telling a dramatic story about how robot technology changes a character's life. The team brainstormed a list of ways robotic technology could change someones life and categorized them as good changes, bad changes, or changes that could be good or bad. Next the team brainstormed a list of possible main characters.
Then it was IC time. First the team did a performance based improv IC where we had a list of charecters, settings, and stories. A set of these was then chosen by a role of the dice. The team decided to decide how much time they had to prepare and how much time they had to present would also be determined by a roll of the dice. They had some interesting scenarios for one turn they had Brett Favre in Iceland with a story of my dog has killer fleas. Next they had Mickey Mouse on the International Space Station with the story being a day in the life of a body guard. Finally they had Lassie in the Mojave Dessert with a story of my jump rope has come to life.
Finally we did a task based IC where the team had to knock over towers of bricks (see the photo album) using some random objects. The catch was the team could not use "direct physical contact" with the tower (this is a restriction right out of Challenge B). For the first go around they quickly decided throwing objects was the best course of action (which worked well) so I changed the rules that they couldn't throw objects, they then got a little more creative and used some wind power with some of the objects and did some "launching" of other objects out of a piece of old gutter and/or tubing. Finally we changed it up again where they had to create as many steps as possible between the action they made and the reaction (knocking the tower over), this results in some great creativity with balls that rolled down platforms and were guided into the tower by funnel type set ups.
Next week is our last meeting before Thanksgiving, watch your email for attempts at scheduling our meetings between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Then it was IC time. First the team did a performance based improv IC where we had a list of charecters, settings, and stories. A set of these was then chosen by a role of the dice. The team decided to decide how much time they had to prepare and how much time they had to present would also be determined by a roll of the dice. They had some interesting scenarios for one turn they had Brett Favre in Iceland with a story of my dog has killer fleas. Next they had Mickey Mouse on the International Space Station with the story being a day in the life of a body guard. Finally they had Lassie in the Mojave Dessert with a story of my jump rope has come to life.
Finally we did a task based IC where the team had to knock over towers of bricks (see the photo album) using some random objects. The catch was the team could not use "direct physical contact" with the tower (this is a restriction right out of Challenge B). For the first go around they quickly decided throwing objects was the best course of action (which worked well) so I changed the rules that they couldn't throw objects, they then got a little more creative and used some wind power with some of the objects and did some "launching" of other objects out of a piece of old gutter and/or tubing. Finally we changed it up again where they had to create as many steps as possible between the action they made and the reaction (knocking the tower over), this results in some great creativity with balls that rolled down platforms and were guided into the tower by funnel type set ups.
Next week is our last meeting before Thanksgiving, watch your email for attempts at scheduling our meetings between Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Sunday, November 8, 2009
Meeting #4 - 11/8/09
Tonight we got serious about selecting a main challenge. The team made good progress and have it narrowed down to two challenges - Challenge B (DI-Bot) and Challenge D (Do or DI). I gave the team a goal of making a final challenge selection by Thanksgiving.
After all of the main challenge talk we did a fun Instant Challenge called "your witness" where one team member is on the stand in a trial for a crime. Only the person on the stand knows the crime they committed, the other team members are members of the jury or an attorney questioning the witness. The attorney is not allowed to directly ask the witness what crime they committed but instead must narrow it down by asking other questions. It took the team a while to get the hang of it but towards the end they were doing pretty good. There are some pictures from tonights meeting in the photo album. Also be sure to check out the DI section of the school website for pictures and media coverage from the egg event this weekend.
After all of the main challenge talk we did a fun Instant Challenge called "your witness" where one team member is on the stand in a trial for a crime. Only the person on the stand knows the crime they committed, the other team members are members of the jury or an attorney questioning the witness. The attorney is not allowed to directly ask the witness what crime they committed but instead must narrow it down by asking other questions. It took the team a while to get the hang of it but towards the end they were doing pretty good. There are some pictures from tonights meeting in the photo album. Also be sure to check out the DI section of the school website for pictures and media coverage from the egg event this weekend.
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Meeting #3 - 11/1/09
This meeting was all about the egg contraption.
The team members designed, built, and tested a couple of other egg contraption concepts. They then built a final egg contraption for the egg event next weekend. The final result looks pretty good, I'll be curious to see how their concepts do on a 40 foot drop, the test drops we've been doing have only been about 12 feet high.
The thing I like most about the final egg contraption is there everyone contributed something to the final solution.
I had an Instant Challenge scheduled for the meeting but we ran out of time so we'll save that for next weekends meeting.
Next week - the egg event! Have you guessed the secret location? Read the rules it's getting a little more obvious every day.
That's all for this week,
Mr. H
The team members designed, built, and tested a couple of other egg contraption concepts. They then built a final egg contraption for the egg event next weekend. The final result looks pretty good, I'll be curious to see how their concepts do on a 40 foot drop, the test drops we've been doing have only been about 12 feet high.
The thing I like most about the final egg contraption is there everyone contributed something to the final solution.
I had an Instant Challenge scheduled for the meeting but we ran out of time so we'll save that for next weekends meeting.
Next week - the egg event! Have you guessed the secret location? Read the rules it's getting a little more obvious every day.
That's all for this week,
Mr. H
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