Henry is part Lego Robotics team at his school. You had to be in 4th or 5th grade and try out for a spot on the team. He was very excited to be in.
They'e been working all fall and winter in preparation for the Regional Competition.
Every team uses a Lego Mindstorm kit to construct a robot to navigate through an obstacle course with tasks. You get points by completing as many of the tasks as possible using programs that you design.
I think the Purple Squirrels completed 3 tasks. (Not bad for a group of first-timers.)
Why the team name "Purple Squirrels"? That's revealed in this video of the Q&A portion of the competition. I give one thing away. 9 and 10 year old boys fidget a lot.
There was also a spontaneous problem solving portion of the competition. Although it doesn't look like there is any sort of order in trying to use straws to move balls to a target on the table, I guess the Purple Squirrels got the most balls to the target.
In the end, the team didn't get the most points in the competition, but were surprised by advancing to the next level of competition- State!
What a great team! And they were lucky to have great coaches as well (our friends Chad and Janet), who I think may have been looking forward to the end of the season, but graciously extended their services for another two months in preparation for the state competition.
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