Today we were excited to welcome the CKWS news into our workspace. We showed what we’ve been working on, and what a finished robot has looked like in the past.
Some of our team were interviewed. We’re thankful for our media training sessions. CKWS will be filming again on Bag and Tag day, Feb. 21st at the warehouse at midnight. It will be exciting to see ourselves on TV, but we’ll have to wait until after the 21st! 
Many projects got worked on today. Chains are now adjusted…
Support plates have been made…
Gear boxes have been assembled…
Motors are now on our chassis…
And the wiring is in full swing.
As in years past, we’re making an electrical box to house our components. We’re getting fancy with colour coding this year. The electrical box will be very pretty!
Our whole robot will be very pretty this year. We can’t wait to see it in its final state. For now, we will be satisfied to admire the CAD on the computer screen. Families and friends are always impressed to see what we’ve been up to. Please feel free to drop by and have a look!
We’re continuing to work hard, making parts and assembling our robot. Safety is very important–we all wear safety glasses in the back of our workspace.
Some of us even wear them when we go for dinner! 
We’re starting a new fashion trend.
K-Bots: We’re meeting this weekend on Saturday and Sunday. This is a very critical weekend. We need all hands on deck to assemble the robot pieces. Be here, be positive, be productive, and be safe!
We also want to emphasize the importance of cleaning up!!
If you do not clean up, you’ll have to wear the “apron of doom”
We experimented with the bridge, to see how possible it will be to get three robots balanced on it. We needed to use extra weights from the weightroom next door to simulate the situation.
…and it looks like the camera is working! Here’s a robot-eye-view of the bridge balancing experience.
We worked with sensors, and are deciding which kinds of sensors give us the best data. 
For some of us, today was a great time to get hands dirty, 
greasing a gear box. 
Others spent their time evaluating our website, and looking for scouting information about other nearby teams.
We’re thrilled to announce that CKWS will be following our team this season, and will be in to film on Fridays. In preparation, we have had a media workshop to prepare for speaking in live interviews. 
Lunch was delicious chili and yummy desserts. Thanks again parents for all you do to support our team. By eating together, and laughing together, strong bonds are formed. We enjoy getting to know families too. Many little siblings are excited to grow up and join our team.
During lunch we had some very interesting discussions “Why go on a date when you can play Starcraft” etc.
It’s nice to have our workroom buzzing with activity. It’s also nice to see how other teams are approaching the design challenges. We look forward to sharing warehouse space with them during the last week of build.
Our orders have been coming in so we’re unpacking boxes, and moving forward with our plans. The biggest excitement came when boxes of electrical components were unpacked.
In other great news, we got some machining done today! Thanks to our Queen’s mentors who spent lots of time in the shop and accomplished so much.
When the pieces came back to our work room, we deburred…
There’s more machining to come in the next few days. Here’s another cool part that we’re using for our robot. 
Does anyone know what it is?
“The muffins are SO DELICIOUS!” -Liam, grade 9
After snack time we got back to work putting together the wheel assemblies for our robot. Working together is always more fun!
We got to work on our top secret project
A few snips later and it looked like this.
Some more secret business involves our strategy for flipping the bridge down. We’ve been working for a few days to develop a good idea. Today we moved our sketches onto CAD.
Some shenanigans took place repeatedly today. Over the course of the evening almost everyone ended up trapped at one time or another. Here’s proof that even a Tweedle can get caught! Despite being caught, the Tweedle is still smiling!
Part way through our work session today we took a time out to learn about talking with the public, particularly to judges and to the media. We are lucky that CKWS TV, our local TV station is interested in following us through build season, checking in from time to time, watching our robot grow and develop, and watching us come together as a team.
We look forward to the opportunity to share FIRST Robotics with the rest of Kingston!
The hallways were buzzing with excited teams, coaches and parents. For some teams this was their very first FLL competition!
…and then we danced…
After much debate and discussion, and CAD mock-ups we’ve also got a good plan for how we’re going to deal with the tube scoring mechanism.
We took breaks for dinner, snacks, and also homework. Homework is very important!
We are thrilled to have another article to add to our media binder. We were in the Whig Standard today with the 
To spread the word about our club, and try to show people what fun we have, we put together a display for the case in front of the main office. We put two of our game pieces in there for safe keeping, along with some tools that we don’t need for the next week, and several colour pictures of our team in action.
We asked our members, new and old, to give us a phrase to explain our team, or to dispel myths about what goes on at robotics club. Each answer was cut out and taped to the glass on the front of the display case.
We showed our robot from last year, and some of the Cyber Falcons took a turn at driving it around the halls. It will be great at the end of build when we can practice together sometime!
It is important to read everything in great detail so we can make good choices in our design.
Then we took over part of the library to simulate the game-play.
We enjoy this time to “be robots”. We get a chance to be a little silly, and it really helps us understand what the game is all about. 
We joined back together and presented our ideas.
“I think the mini-bot should be fast and small just like me!” -Paige, grade 9
Our Toronto kick-off crew arrived towards the end of the day. It was so exciting to see our game pieces, and to hear their ideas of how to play the game.
We are going to meet tomorrow at 9:00AM until 5:00PM to continue with our brainstorming and to decide what ideas we will prototype.
We had hoped that our tournament would be a qualifying regional tournament, but unfortunately there weren’t enough teams signed up by the deadline, so we changed it into a practice tournament. A few other teams and community groups decided to join in with the Lego fun. To add to the fun of the day, we were glad to have Karthik as our M.C. for the tournament. He helped get people enthusiastic, and informed about the FLL game Body Forward.
In the morning the Discobots, Legendary Lego Legion, Vanier Vipers and the 
Helped by mentors from Queen’s University, and K-Botics, these inexperienced teams learned how to build and program a robot to accomplish several missions. One of these rookie teams, the 
During the day we had demonstrations of our robot from the Breakaway challenge last year. It’s always neat to watch people’s faces when we open up the electrical box.
We were also glad that the local 
Throughout the day, we focused on creating an enthusiastic, fun, welcoming and spirited environment. A big part of this spirit involved the presence of our KCVI mascot, the blue bear.
Anika made friends with the blue bear at the FLL practice tournament that we hosted last year, and it appears that they are still good friends now!
They danced together when the music played….and they weren’t the only ones dancing!
Our dance lessons helped us get EVERYONE involved…even Vanier’s Viper!
The field table competition happened in the afternoon. Round robin play was followed by the playoff rounds. Each team should be proud of what they accomplished.
When we step back and reflect on the day, we are proud of what was accomplished by our team, and by the FLL and Jr. FLL teams. We wish them all well on their upcoming regional qualifying tournaments, and hope that our day helped provide important feedback and useful practice on the field tables.
Congratulations to all of the teams! We look forward to seeing you all again next year.
