A Great Learning Experience!

The trip to Channel 3 was a great experience for parents and students alike!
There were seven or eight teams participating - each team got to run their robot three times.
During the first run, parents got a tour of the studio - we got to see all the behind the scenes stuff from the news room, to the control room, to the editing bays. Later on, the kids got to visit with two of the meteorologists, Paul Barys and Neal Pascal, and ask them questions about climate change. It was a wonderful day, we learned a LOT about what needs to be done to be ready for Cookeville. Thanks to Mr. Odom and all the parents who came and helped out!

Almost There - still need help

Wow, the competition is coming up QUICK! We have a few more practices we will need snacks at, and we need to think of a giveaway we can put together or purchase soon. If we want each kid to have 10 things to hand out/swap, we will need 12o (to include alternates). Any ideas? These should be small enough to stick in your pocket, but the 'wow' factor is fun! Anything we do will need to have our team name, and perhaps school name and city on it. If you have a suggestion or idea, please email me or leave a comment here!

SNACKS - Thanks to Leigh Ann Coats who is paying attention and noticed nobody stepped up for Thursday, so she offered to handle Tues and Thurs herself.
We will need extra snacks for the week after Thanksgiving - that will be a long week with long practices and good 'brain food' is always appreciated.

December:
Monday 1
Tuesday 2
Wednesday 3
Thursday 4
Friday 5

We also usually have a large cooler full of cold water bottles go on the bus with us, if anyone can get that together, please shout! Leave a comment on this post, or email me at jenn (AT) scrappersworkshop.com
Thanks everyone!

SNACK UPDATE!

Thanks to everyone who's supplied snacks so far, I know the kids appreciate it!
We have a couple of dates still open:
Oct 30 Th
Nov 4 Tue
Nov 6 Th
Nov 18 Tue
Nov 20 Th
- If you can do any of these, please email jenn: jenn ( at ) scrappersworkshop.com
or post a comment in the previous post:
http://roboraiders.blogspot.com/2008/09/new-season-new-team-big-dreams.html

New Season, New Team - BIG DREAMS!

Welcome everybody to the 2008-2009 RoboRaiders!

We've set up a snack schedule - I will post it here and update it as I have new information. If you'd like to bring snack on a particular date, just leave a comment with your name and your student's name and the dates, and I'll edit the list.
Mr. Odom has asked that we keep the snacks reasonably healthy, not too sticky, and easy to get out/clean up. Water bottles and finger food snacks are perfect!

RoboRaiders - Snack Schedule

Sept 23 Tue Leigh Ann Coats
Sept 25 Th Jennifer White

Sept 30 Tue Leigh Ann Coats
Oct 2 Th Jennifer White

Oct 7 Tue Richelle Shelton
Oct 9 Th Richelle Shelton

Oct 14 Tue Melissa Roberts
Oct 16 Th FALL BREAK NO SCHOOL

Oct 21 Tue Lisa Wofford
Oct 23 Th Lisa Wofford

Oct 28 Tue Bella Ngo
Oct 30 Th

Nov 4 Tue
Nov 6 Th

Nov 11 Tue Julie Fuller
Nov 13 Th Julie Fuller


Nov 18 Tue LeighAnn Coats
Nov 20 Th

CONGRATULATIONS TEAMS!

Our teams did really well at this years' tournament! The highlight of the day was when BOTH teams were called back to do their presentations for all the judges! They both really stepped it up a notch, and gave their best performances yet! The judges must have thought so too, because the White Team came in 6th and the Blue Team came in 4th out of 50 teams for Presentation!

WHITE TEAM

BLUE TEAMMore photos will be posted soon, but we wanted to say CONGRATULATIONS teams!!

GOOD LUCK ROBORAIDERS!

The big competition is at hand! Saturday at Tennessee Tech in Cookeville, we will go up against the best teams in the state - so wish us luck!
The day will go as follows:
6:30AM - Meet at CMS
6:45 AM - Leave CMS
8:15 AM - arrive in Cookeville
8:15 AM - team sign in, find our pits, check over gear, rehearse presentations, meet and greet other teams, pass out swap gifts
From here on in, each team will be on its own schedule:
WHITE TEAM
9:50AM - 1st Robotics Round Gold 2
10:00 AM - Presentation Room B
11:25 AM- 2nd Robotics Round Purple 3
11:35 AM - Technical and Team Interview Table B
3:10 PM - 3rd Robotics Round Gold 1

BLUE TEAM
10:00AM - 1st Robotics Round Gold 3
10:10AM - Presentation Room C
11:35AM - 2nd Robotics Round Purple 4
11:45AM - Technical and Team Interview Table C
3:20PM - 3rd Robotics Round Gold 4

After the last Robotics Rounds, we will have to wait for the scoring to be completed. The awards ceremony is scheduled for 5:30 and is usually right on time.
We will want to have dinner after the competition, either at a restaurant or brown bag on the bus.
9-10PM Arrive at CMS - our time will depend on dinner and travel, your student can call you when we are getting close so you can come pick up.

SEE YOU ALL ON SATURDAY!!

GO ROBORAIDERS!

CMS TEAM ROBORAIDERS WIN BIG !

The CMS RoboRaiders did Cleveland and CMS proud on Saturday at the FIRST Lego League competition. We had a VERY exciting day, starting with a long bus ride at the crack of dawn!
Once we got there and got set up, we had a little time to walk around and meet people before our first round of robot competition.
Once we got there and got set up, we had a little time to walk around and meet people before our first round of robot competition.The first round was VERY exciting, with everything working smoothly, and the whole team working well together. The cheering section could be heard all over the gym! Then we RUSHED right over to the presentation room, and did our presentation for the judge. After that, the second round then our technical interviews. Everybody was ready for lunch!
We hurried back from lunch to see if the standings had been posted, and...

WE MADE THE FIRST CUT!!!

So we hurried to get the presentation props, and made our presentation to all of the judges.It went really well, then we had some free time before our last round. We walked around and cheered on the other teams, traded giveaways with other teams, and had a little rest. Then it was time for the final round.
We did our best, then just had to wait for the results... We got our scorecard, and learned that we did really well on the presentation portion - with top marks across the board!! We also learned that we have some work to do on our robots, but that our teamwork scores were mostly good.

It was real nail-biting time...

First, we won FIRST PLACE for the Project Presentation!!! That was great, thought we were done.
THEN - we won FOURTH PLACE for teamwork! We were so excited, it was a blast.
There were many other awards announced, and we clapped and cheered for every team, especially the Chattanooga teams, as two of them won awards too!
Finally, they were down to the LAST THREE TROPHIES - but we didn't win Third place overall. So we thought we were done...
BUT WE WON THE SECOND PLACE CHAMPIONSHIP TROPHY!
It was a thrill to walk down to the podium again and accept our second trophy!


It was a proud moment for everyone, kids, coaches and parents alike! No team could have represented CMS better than this team, and they were well rewarded for their efforts!

GO ROBORAIDERS!

FIRST TASTE OF COMPETITION

The RoboRaiders acquitted themselves well in Chattanooga last weekend competing with four other teams from all over SouthEastern Tennessee.The team had the opportunity to try out their robot on another team's competition table under competition-like circumstances. Our team learned a lot by watching the other teams' strategies, and made some improvements inbetween rounds.
Everyone had a great time, and the three hours just FLEW by! It was wonderful to work together as a team and enjoy the fruits of our labors.

GO ROBORAIDERS!!!!

MEET THE ROBO RAIDERS

Some of the RoboRaiders team competed in Chattanooga on Saturday November 11th. We had a great time, and learned a lot!