A Day With Mr. Murphy

I went with the robotics team earlier this week to the kick-off of the Summer Reading Program at our local library. 

Mr. Murphy (of Murphy's Law) decided to spend the day with us.

We were supposed to show up at 9:30. 

So, 9:30 rolls around, and I'm sitting in front of the library with my daughter and a 150 pound robot in the back of the van. 

No kids.

9:40 rolls around, and one other member of the team shows up.  There's still no way the three of us are strong enough to lift the robot out of the van, so we begin calling kids and rousting them out of bed.  Two of them are on a cross country road trip with their dad.  Two others are enrolled at music camp for the week, and are unavailable, others are at work.. well, you get the idea.  We finally tracked down the four kids who said they'd be there.

10:00 all kids are present and accounted for.  Robot is in the library, and the little kids are coming in.

10:05 robot is working, picking up balls and shooting them.

10:10 robot stops working.  The kids, in a panic, attempt to find out why it's not working.

10:10-11:30, I and the two young ladies with me, explain to all who come to stop that they are watching engineering in action.  Just look at the way those engineers are looking for the problem.  See?  They are going through each and every possible problem and testing it to make certain that it works.

10:30 - a mother starts to argue with me that that's not what engineers do.  They solve problems!  They don't get their hands dirty!  A long discussion ensues with an older gentleman who is a retired Civil Engineer of 30 years experience, hanging out for the day with his grandchildren.  Mother ends up leaving in a snit, because "Engineers have clean jobs!  They don't take things apart!  They solve math problems!"

10:45, in desperation, we pull one of the smaller FTC robots out of the trunk of another car.  We bring it in and realize that NONE of the kids present know how to work one of the FTC bots. 

11:15 - we isolate the problem.  We need one specific tool and it will be fixed in a jiffy.  I have a van full of tools, but the tool we need is in the warehouse.  We don't have the key to the warehouse.  We track down the parent who does have the key to the warehouse.  He answers his phone, would love to help us, but at that particular moment, he's in San Diego, getting ready to go into a meeting.

11:30 - Summer Reading Kick Off Ends.  Oh, and we manage to fix the wiring without the missing tool, robot now runs fine.

What a wonderful example of the thrills of technology! 

This post originally appeared in my now defunct "Mom's View" blog.  I moved it to this blog at the request of my kids, who wanted to have all of the various posts that accompanied their high school years in one place.  I've matched the publication dates here to their original post date.  If you're reading these posts, I sincerely thank you for taking the time to go back through them all! 

Robotics Tournament

I'm writing this from the stands at Xavier University.

Our team has been competing in the regional tournament this weekend. We didn't make it to the final rounds,but we have had an amazing experience!

I'm going to post some pictures from this weekend. Unfortunately, I can't post captions on my phone. So, I'll post pictures and add captions tomorrow when I get home.

Congratulations to the finalists!

A team mascot makes certain his safety goggles are in place while back in the pits!

Between rounds... the robots from the previous round are removed,
and the next robots are placed on the field.

Love this battery charging station!  This is actually a wagon on wheels!
Set it on end, and voila!  A compact battery charging station!
(I'll bet it's really easy to pack, too!)

The all girls robotics team from Pittsburgh.
They were even dressed like Rosie the Riveter.
I loved their enthusiasm!  So happy and upbeat through the entire event!

A view down into the pits from the stands.  The pits are an exhilerating place to be!
Lots of energy and enthusiasm down there!

Thursday - A Trip to Indianapolis

Since we are in Ohio anyway, I took a trip over to Indianapolis on Thursday to see my Aunt. She's the last remaining member of my Dad's generation. At 72, she's also lived longer than her siblings.

We had a great time! We talked about everything, and we went out to lunch together and talked some more!

I ended up with two more boxes of my grandmother's china to bring home. You know that when you are traveling 8 hours to get back home with 4 teenagers, their luggage, and a mascot costume, there's nothing you want to do more than shove two boxes of hundred year old china into the mix!

Seriously, I am thrilled beyond words to have the last of the china. I'm to split this batch with my sister. I remember Sunday Dinners at Granny's house served inside of those dishes!

My cousin came out to visit while I was there. He's two years older than me. And at 48 years old, he's already had 4 heart attacks and 2 bypass operations. It was a stark reminder of just how much I have to be thankful for. You can never take good health for granted. Our family health history is littered with stories of early heart disease and the loss of good people who are in their 40's and 50's.

I'd like to say I had a great time in Indianapolis. What I had instead was a stark reminder.

Anyway, I'll be posting later on today from the Regional Robotics competition. Yesterday was Day 1. Today is the final day-and we had big , big happenings yesterday!

A Blast From the Past

We traveled from Maryland to Cincinnati yesterday for a robotics tournament.

I grew up just a little north of here. The trip down yesterday afternoon was full of memories for me!

We drove past King's Island - an amusement park that I have some very fond memories of. I remember they used to have this wonderful ride called "the Wonderful World of Hannah Barbers", where Shaggy and Scooby and Yogi all came to life.

We passed by the road that used to take you to Camp Green - a Girl Scout property that was our favorite. I loved tent camping there, and I remember the raccoons eating through our coolers and taking out our food that we had stored in styrofoam coolers.

We drove by the entrance to Lewis and Clark State Park. A nifty little park that surrounds a river. Our family used to go hiking there once a month.

I could go on for hours, but you get the idea. I have this crazy hope that I'll run into friends I grew up with this weekend. But, it's been 30 years since I've seen any of them. I am positive that even if I do see them, I'll never recognize them!

Good luck to all of the teams competing this weekend!

Chesapeake Regional

Yesterday we finished the robotics tournament. The qualifying rounds were over at noon, and the finalists were announced and the alliances were chosen. Our team was chosen to be in one of the final alliances. We lost in the quarter finals, but the kids had an amazing time. We got home late last night- around -11. The team stopped on the way home for pizza. The kids took over two booths and pushed two tables up next to them. The exhausted parents sat at a separate table and talked about how proud we are of all of our amazing kids. To have done so much, been professional throughout, and to continue to be gracious even after losing.... it speaks very high of the quality of their character.

And so, I present some more photos from the last day of competition.

I know this is hard to see, but the kids are dancing.  During a break between matches, the kids were getting down on the floor and line dancing.  I couldn't catch the width of the action on my camera- but it's about 500 kids, dancing the electric slide.

Information on FIRST robotics.  This display board explained the levels of competition, from elementary-high school, and explains the resources necessary to start a team of your own.

The drivers from one of the alliances confer before a match, planning out their team strategy.

Packing up all the "stuff" to go home.

FIRST Robotics

I spent the last two days subbing in first grade.  They were interesting days, but I'm glad they are over. 

Today, I'm chaperoning our High School Robotics team at the Chesapeake Regional Qualifier, held in Baltimore.

If you aren't familiar with FIRST robotics, I'm going to get sidetracked here for a while and tell you everything you need to know in a few quick sentences.

1) The program was begun 20 years ago by Dean Kamen. (If you've seen a Segway, you've seen his work.  He's an inventor.)  His goal was to stimulate critical and creative thinking in the Sciences and Engineering with students by giving them the opportunity to have hands on, creative, real-life problem solving skills that relate to a real-life challenge.

2) FIRST robotics has programs avaialable for children in upper elementary (grades 4-6), middle school, and high school.  Schools do not offer FIRST robotics as part of their curriculum.  It is an after school activity.  Several community organizations offer robotics programs, including the Girl Scouts, 4-H, and several Boys and Girls Clubs.

3) FIRST robotics is an international program.  Regional qualifiers are held all over the world, and the winning teams then compete at the Global Finals held in  May.

4) All of the robotics programs come with a central challenge.  I am most familiar with the high school  FRC program, so I'll outline it here:

• In January, kick off is held.  The new game is announced.  This year, your robot must be able to move around the field and shoot baskets into basketball hoops.
• Every team is given the same box of parts and the same rule book to follow.
• The kids have six weeks to build and program a working robot that meets the mandatory weight guidelines.
• After six weeks, the robots are tagged and bagged and sent off to FIRST for weighing in preparation for the tournaments.

It sounds so simple, doesn't it?  And yet, if you are familiar with the engineering field at all, you know that this challenge is not as simple as it sounds.  The kids are still in school, and they must keep their grades up at the same time that they are working on this robot.  Homework must still be turned in, and tests must still be passed.  The challenges get to the kids after a while.  Tempers fray during the last week of build season.

But then comes the magic of competition.  The kids get to put their finished product out on the field and see if it works.  They form alliances with other teams, so that there are three robots on a team, and two teams compete against each other at the same time.  Gracious professionalism rules the day.  I've seen robots catch fire during competition.  Suddenly, you'll see kids from 4 or 5 other teams out on the field, helping that poor robot, fixing the wiring, and getting it working again.  I've seen robots stop working, and other teams will give up their time-outs to make certain that the afflicted team has time to repair their robot and get it up and running again.

I tell you, you go to any robotics event anywhere in this country, and you will be struck by how wonderful, smart, kind, giving, and absolutely amazing our young people are. 

I wish these kids would get more press.  They are the quiet, unsung heroes of the next generation.

And I am so proud of ALL of them.  Not just my team- all of the teams.  These kids are simply unbelievable.

Good luck to all of the participants in all of the qualifiers around the country this weekend!

*I will be posting pictures from the Convention Center over the next few days.*