We're the American Mohawks and we rock!!!

Austin's lego club - the American Mohawks - had it's First Lego League (FLL) competition this past weekend. 

I didn't get to the competition until lunch time, but another mom told me a story about the opening ceremonies. During the parade all the teams were introducing themselves and the other teams were using normal, quiet voices, but not our team! Sean came the the microphone and yelled, "WE"RE THE AMERICAN MOHAWKS & WE ROCK!!!" And all the boys started jumping around, head-banging, and rocking out. Love it!

They had 3 presentations: Project, Robot Design, & Core Values and then they did 3 robot missions. The presentations were put together and presented by the boys, all by themselves. The coaches & parents don't get to watch, so I don't have any pictures of them (I wasn't there anyways), but the boys said they went well. 

Getting ready for robot missions

 Austin ready for the first robot mission - this is unfortunately the mission where something was wrong with the programming. 

Fixing the programming problem with robot.

Waiting for next round & letting another team use their mat - coopertition is part of the competition!! 

Unfortunately, the programming problem during the first robot mission meant they placed 17th of 20 teams in that part of the competition. They only scored a 35 the first mission, and scored 145 and 140 on the 2nd and 3rd missions. The first place team's score was 343, so they were thisclose to having a better finish in this part of the competition. They were disappointed, but handled it pretty well.

However (drum roll please), they won the Project portion of the competition!! 

The very shiny reflection to the right of the poster is the trophy and Austin is behind it.

Project poster which Austin has displayed in his bedroom-

The theme this past year is Senior Solutions. After interviewing seniors about the problems they face, the boys decided to design new bifocals. They used legos to make a gear sort of thing that lifts the bifocal lens up and down in front of the glasses. It's not on the poster anymore because the boy who donated the legos to make it wanted them back (of course).

Thank you to our coaches - Coach Ed & Sarah Felt! And Coach Jason for helping out Saturday!