Our first day back from winter break, and the team continues to work their minds like hamster wheels. Very fast, and with periodic lapses of complete exhaustion and despair. You can really tell the "storm" in brainstorming has yet to pick up. But all in all, it has hit the team's forecast radars and nOW I AM TALKING ABOUT WEATHER AND SHOULD STOP.
Our first point on the agenda was to recap the team on the three main ideas we talked about: forklift, conveyor belt, and "pac-man," a variation of the forklift. We then proceeded with the dreaded manual TESTTTTT. Everyone seemed to pass with flying colors and got to vote on which big idea we were going to go with first, which ultimately was the forklift concept. The builders then split into three groups: two groups which brainstormed ideas on the lifting mechanism, and the last group which brainstormed ideas for the chassis. At the end of the meeting, the ideas were presented, and they included conveyor belt lifts, human player loaded systems, drive trains, robots shaped like oddly shaped pizza slices, and gear and pinyon claws. The members of the team that were not builders continued to prep computers with software and other programming thingamajigs (as you can tell, I am not a programmer), but the majority of the team's brain power went towards brainstorming as well. And just some random comments: oh my god. There are so many people on the team right now that there aren't enough seats in the classroom for everyone! Wwooooweee! Things are finally starting to pick up and I'm glad there are so many Prontonians this year. I love everyone. Everyone loves everyone. We're a happy family. (Is that from Barney? A quick Google search confirms.) Great job on your first after-school build day! THERE'S ONLY 5+ WEEKS LEFT. LONG LIVE PRONTONIA (cue "God Save the Queen") ARE YOU REAAADDDY TOOOO RUUUMMMBBBLLLEE? I mean, RECYCLLLE??! Tomorrow, everything will start to pick up!
For lack of anything better to call it at the moment, the game his year is all manner of interesting. They weren't kidding when they said "change" was coming. No buMPERS? NO OPPOSING TEAM INTERACTION? GAH. However, I have faith that we will do amazing this year, or die trying. (That's how we weed out our weak. Everyone must put the robot above their LIFE.) After the kickoff, we met back up at the auto shop to understand the game and brainstorm! It was amazing. I don't think so many people have ever read the game manual on our team! We even came up with a new initialism. RTFM. Read the (insert word of your choice that starts with f. Like flippin'!) Manual! We also got snacks provided to us by Ms. Fenske and Ms. Ricord. They were super tasty! Thank you so much! Honestly, I kind of feel like my life is falling apart right now. End of our semester is coming up, I'm going to be at school to 6 or 8 everyday, saying farewell to relaxing weekends. It's always so anxiety inducing in the beginning. But time after time, I get to make some of best memories in the autoshop that I'll end up spending more time in than my actual home. And then I can finally feel my life being built again, along with a super cool robot. I mean, robots. C'mon. #omgrobots, right? TEAM PRONTO! LET US RALLY AND RECYCLE! The name of the game is Recycle Rush. Frank wasn't kidding when he said change was coming. Students. Mentors. Volunteers. Parents. Pets. Please read the game manual. At least 20 times.
Today was NOT the day to miss. Actually, no day is a good day to miss. But this one in particular. The team spent a couple hours reading the manual, clarifying some rules, and discussing possible game strategies to score points. The team split into 8 mini groups each led by a mentor. Each group was responsible for drafting up a rough concept design for a robot. We then took a much deserved lunch break. After that, we identified the reoccurring robot concept ideas and archetypes, consolidating all 8 ideas into 3 basic concepts. Each of the mini-team ideas was some variation or combination of the 3 archetypes. IMPORTANT!!! On Monday, we will be finalizing the robot concept. We will also be having a game manual test. If you do not pass the test, you will not be allowed to vote on the final robot concept. SO READ THE MANUAL. |