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Two weeks ago, we competed at the MAR Springside-Chestnut Hill Event with 35 other teams. Our robot performed decently, and we were ranked 18th. However, we were not picked during the alliance selection, but Jordan did win the hula-hooping contest in celebration of Pi Day. We took full advantage of the opportunity to work on the robot and decided what needed to be added and taken away. Between this event and the Upper Darby District Event, we added a ramp that would allow totes to slide easily into our robot from the human player station, downsized our chain (from size 60 to 45), and added supports.
This past weekend, we competed at Upper Darby. We performed much better here than our previous event. We made several stacks of 4, 5, and 6 totes in our matches. At the end of the Qualification Matches, we ranked nineteenth and were selected to be on the 7th alliance, headed by Team 5404, the Gearaffes, and accompanied by Team 1168, Malvern Robotics. We were knocked out in the quarterfinals, but we fought valiantly. We additionally received the Imagery Award (we were a little bit surprised when they called our team number) and Erin got Dean’s List. Overall, it was a pretty awesome day.

Congratulations to the winners 225, 2607, and 4460, runners-up 316, 272, and 5420, Chairman’s winners 321, and all the other teams at this event!

Dawgma’s “Sealed” Pit

Hula-Hooping Champion of Pi Day

We are not competing at Hatboro-Horsham, though we are scouting, volunteering, and cheering on the other teams. There are some really impressive teams competing! We know we’ll have some serious competition at Sprinside-Chestnut Hill, our first district event. Good luck to all the veteran and rookie teams competing this weekend!

Here’s info on the Hatboro-Horsham District Event
http://www.usfirst.org/whats-going-on/event/13429?ProgramCode=FRC

All teams around the world, both rookie and veteran, were anticipating the new season as they watched the   countdown until the livestream began. After numerous delays and movie previews (Slingshot and Spare Parts), we were all finally able to view the new challenge! It is called “Recycle Rush.” Robots must stack totes and recycling bins and place pool noodles in the recycling bins. Watch the video:

http://youtu.be/hTyCIYZQ_1s

The Tin Mints are currently sitting in the auditorium of Upper Darby High School waiting for Kickoff. In about half an hour, Kickoff will start. Head here for the livestream:

On Saturday, November 22, we hosted our second annual Lego Fury at E.T. Richardson Middle School. Ten teams came to our competition, which included Ridley’s FLL team, mentored by Erin. The Jr. FLL, FLL, and FRC girls volunteered at the event and helped it run smoothly. The 501st Legion came and people took their pictures with them! We had a 50/50 raffle, a best lego cake competition, which we auctioned off, and good food and music. After the matches, we had a dance party on the stage and everyone had a good time! Many awards were given out, and three teams are advancing to the Penn Championship in February. We had a great day, and special thanks to all the volunteers!

On Thursday night, a few girls on the FLL and FRC teams visited Swartmore-Rutledge School for their STEM Night. The FLL girls explained this year’s challenge and showed students and parents alike several missions on the NXT robot. The FRC girls demo-ed Rosie (from Ultimate Ascent) and talked to adults and kids about our program. Our old classmate was giving us some trouble at first, but after a while it turned on and we were able to shoot frisbees. Rosie is getting pretty skilled at making baskets past the half-court line. A lot of kids were very excited about joining a robotics team!

On Saturday, November 15, we made our way down to the Comcast Building in Philly to listen to seminars about programming our robot and marketing our team. In the morning half the girls went to the Intro to LabVIEW seminar and the remaining girls went to the Business and Marketing seminar. After lunch, we listened to Women in Technology, which was very inspiring and insightful, and the Chairman’s Award seminar, which was very helpful! After the last seminar, our team walked down the street to Love Park and got our picture taken in front of the Love Statue. We had an awesome day and thank you, Team 272, for putting this day together!

On Wednesday night, we were given the opportunity to see Woodie Flowers speak at Hatboro Horsham High School! Woodie Flowers talked about education, specifically how it is important to integrate both STEM and the humanities into a curriculum. Additionally, he spoke about how humans do things that machines can’t do and how this will change in the future. It was a very interesting talk, and afterward we were able to meet him, talk with him about our team, and take a picture! Woodie Flowers is actually such a cool guy and an inspiration.

This past weekend, we traveled to North Brunswick to participate in Brunswick Eruption, hosted by Raider Robotics. We did very well this weekend- we made it to semi-finals with teams 1089 and 1279, who did great. It was a very eventful weekend, from battery leakage to Erin coming in second place for the Evil Sundae competition. We had so much fun at our first Brunswick Eruption and cannot wait to return next year!

Last weekend, we went to Wissahickon High School to compete in Ramp Riot for the second year. The drive team did awesome and Rosie did well too, but there were a few issues with the pistons that lift up the feeder. A few Girl Scouts came to the event, and Emily along with girls from teams 341 and 2016 showed them one of Miss Daisy’s past robot, the FTC arena, and a few matches. Afterward, we showed them the pits and Rosie, and one girl was very interested in joining our FLL team! At the end of qualification matches, our record was 6-1, and we were the fifth alliance captain, picking teams 316 and 1712. Although we worked hard and played well, we got out in quarterfinals. It was a great day nevertheless and we cannot wait for next year!