4/19/14: FINAL MEETING SUMMARY!

Hello readers,

FINAL MEETING OF THIS YEAR'S FLL SEASON! We had an excellent final meeting, We perfected and finalized the missions, we practiced everything multiple times competition style and we ran through our practice questions. Also, two coaches from the Lego Dragons graciously consented to come and judge us on our performances. 

This has been an amazing FLL season for all of us in the BrickBusters. Samarth, Shane, Srikar and I hope to continue on to FTC next year. Medini, Sriya, Suhani and Shaun hope to continue to do FLL and go to the World Festival one more time. We are all very excited for the World Festival. We give a HUGE thank you to our amazing coaches, Mr. and Mrs. Madhusudan. Thank you to everyone who helped out our team on this amazing journey.

Thanks and GO BRICKBUSTERS!

- Mukund Madhusudan

Lego Meeting Summary: 4/16/2014

Hey, Brickbusters!
Today was more of a practice day, than a work day. We all memorized our lines perfectly and practiced the RDES speech a lot of times (near the mission board as well.) Coach gave us information on the schedule of the World Festival and explained what we will have access to and when. Some reminders for next class include-

•  Review Project Skit and RDES lines. 
•  Review notes for Fire Retardant Balloon and The Lightening Diverter.
• Go over summaries for Robot Design, Project and Core Values.

Only a week left for the World Festival to start!!
Thanks, and GO BRICK BUSTERS!
Samarth.

Lego Meeting Summary: 4/15/2014

Hey, Brickbusters!
In today's meeting, the main thing that we focused on was some questions and especially the RDES speech; though we did practice the skit a few times. Lastly, we ended our class by working on Mission 3. Some reminders for next class include- 
                               
1. Review the RDES and Project Skit lines (Tip: all lines must be memorized by tomorrow.)
2. Review the Robot Design, Project and Core values summaries.
3. Review notes for Fire Retardant Balloon and Lightening Diverter.
Thanks, and Go Brickbusters!
Samarth.

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Lego Meeting Summary: 4/14/2014

Hey, Brickbusters!
We started off by practicing some Robot design and Programming questions. Next, we practiced our RDES (Robot Design Executive Summary) speech. We also ran through our Project Skit and finally worked on Mission 3. The younger ones revised their knowledge of Core Values by looking at the presentation that we had created for the State Competition. Some reminders for next class are-

• Review your lines for the RDES as well as the Project Skit. (Tip: All lines must be memorized by Wednesday.)
• Look over the Fire Retardant Balloon and Lightning Diverter notes. 
• Look over the summaries for Robot Design, Core Values and the Project.

Thanks, and Go BrickBusters!
Samarth

Lego Meeting Summary: Sunday 4/13/2014

Hello BrickBusters,
Today was also another good practice day. The older kids started off by practicing and improving the missions. During that time, the younger kids reviewed their questions and practiced their lines for the project skit and the robot design executive summary. After that, we all practice the project skit, RDES, and the core values song. Then, we went over some of the questions. After going over the questions, Samarth and Srikar prepared notes on the Lightning Diverter and the Fire Retardant Balloon, parts of the WEPADS to refresh everyone's memory about the various components of the parts. In that time, the younger kids refreshed their memory on wildfires. As we are approaching the date for the event that we are all looking forward to, here are a few things that we need to keep in mind:

• Practice Project Skit Lines
• Practice RDES Lines
• Review Questions

Thanks and Go BrickBusters!!!
Srikar

Lego Meeting Summary: Saturday, 4/12/2014

Hello BrickBusters,
Today was a productive day in practicing and making changes to all of the items that we originally had. Everyone practiced the Robot Design Executive Summary (RDES) along with the project skit and core values song. We also practiced the questions that we had come with before the qualifying tournament. Here are a few reminders as we approach the last week of practice before the World Festival. The older kids then practiced running the missions while the younger kids continued practicing and reviewing other information.

• Practice Your Lines For The RDES.
• Practice Your Questions
• Continue To Review Your Lines For Skit Depending Upon Comfortability With Them.

Thanks And Go BrickBusters!!!
Srikar

Lego Meeting Summary: 4/6/2014

Hey, Brickbusters!
We started off with practicing the Robot design speech. Through this process, we edited our script and added/ subtracted a few lines. After practicing the speech for about 3 times, we split off- doing work assigned to each group. The younger ones helped select some core value pictures for our team, while the older ones worked on perfecting the missions to the best possible. We also worked on redesigning our Robot design board and concluded on what to improve from previous experiences. Some reminders for next class are:

• Remember to review your questions; they are posted on a Google docs document which has been shared to all team members.
• The older ones have to write about a particular section in The World Festival Team Information Sheet and send it to the team.
• Finish commenting the programs and send them to Shane for printing.

Thanks, and Go BrickBusters!
Samarth

Meeting April 5th, 2014

Hello followers,

We recently had a meeting, our second after Spring Break. Shane and Mukund were working on the missions, perfecting them for the World Festival. We also practiced attatching and detatching all of the attatchments for the missions. Near the end of the meeting, we commented the remaining programs and got ready to complete the programming board for tomorrow.

Unfortunately, Srikar and Samarth was unable to make it to our meeting, but the younger ones practiced the Robot and Programming speech and they wrote down captions for the storyboard, about places that we visited as a team, and places that we volunteered at. 

The major things we need to do now are:
- Practice the skit
- Clean up the mission and project boards
- Practice the new robot design presentation
- Run through the missions competition style and make them more consistent

Thanks, and Go BrickBusters!

BrickBusters Meeting: 4/3/14

Hey readers,

We recently had a meeting, our first after Spring Break. For the World Festival, we are required to make a mini-presentation for Robot Design Judging. Shane and Mukund were hard at work to finish it, and at the end of the meeting, they were able to complete it.

Unfortunately, Shaun was unable to make it to our meeting, but the girls worked on what we did for outreach in our season. They wrote down everything we have done for outreach and created a timeline listing everything we have done.

Samarth and Srikar ran through our completed missions a few times, and worked on commenting the final program that needed commenting. The mission they were commenting ran through 100% perfectly multiple times, without a hitch.

The major things we need to do now are:
- Practice the skit
- Clean up the mission and project boards
- Practice the new robot design presentation
- Run through the missions competition style and make them more consistent

Thanks, and Go BrickBusters!

- Mukund Madhusudan

Presenting at the Findley Elementary School Science Fair with V-Cube FTC

Hello readers,

Our team was invited to present our robot, project and core values to students at the Findley Science Fair. We talked to many students, some who have done FLL in the past, or some who have not even heard of it. We also talked to parents and we tried to get students interested in FLL next year. We presented our robot by running a demo EV3 robot with a simple program that would make it continuously stay within a black oval. Students were intrigued about how the robot worked, such as how the motors drove 4 wheels, how the color sensor worked, and how the programming software controlled the robot. We talked to them about what FLL is, the parts of FLL and who can form a team. We even went around the Science Fair projects and talked to some of the students about projects related to what we were doing in FLL, and told them about FLL. It was a great experience, and we thank the school for inviting us to present there with V-Cube FTC!

Thanks, and Go BrickBusters!

-Shane Puthuparambil