Day 17: Today is the last day of classes for us at KCVI! For the next little while our work space is open all day AND after school. This will be a productive week! Our electrical team went for a field trip today to Kraftwerk to discuss how we’re going to bend metal for several robot components. We are so glad to have the assistance of Kraftwerk again this year!
We worked today on our driving skills. We carpeted the hallway and set up an obstacle course.
Programming needed a little tweaking to make the robot easier to drive.
It takes a little time to get used to the controls….
…and then it takes intense focus to drive the robot without hitting the cones. We saw a lot of promising drivers today! We’ll keep practicing, and have some driver tryouts in early February.
We’re organizing all of our tasks on our big organizational chalkboard. There is so much to do!
We’re working on our CAD drawings still. We’ve got lots of part drawings to get done before we can manufacture all of the parts. 
We’re prototyping various devices to manipulate the ramp. To make it more fun we split up into two teams (girls vs. boys) and had a competition.
We’re planning and measuring and cutting material carefully.
We’re working together, mentors and experienced team members are showing our rookies how to work safely.
It’s exciting to see our designs work well! Even if our designs don’t work well, we can learn from that.
our design is tweedle approved!
We took a break for a delicious taco dinner. It is fun to eat all together like this. Everyone gets to know everyone else. “My favourite meals in the week are the ones I eat at robotics” -Olivia, grade 8
We also get to meet family members…
…and welcome them into our big purple family. Family members love Tweedles as much as the rest of us!
After dinner we kept working on our prototypes for ramp manipulation. When tested on the ramp, the boys’ prototype was definitely the loudest, but the girls’ seemed to be a little more effective. Good work girls!
Best of luck to anyone writing exams this week. Study hard, and come build robots when you’re done.
We decided to suspend a weight from a meter above our robot to mimic anything we might build up there, and then give it a try. We installed plywood chain guards to keep us all safe.
Some of us spent a great deal of time doing calculations, doing research and gathering our materials.
Then we use our organizational chart to divide ourselves up into several groups. We have a timeline of season goals, along with weekly goals and daily tasks on our blackboard. Each student and mentor have their name on a magnet, and choose their tasks for the session.
Our field building crew worked really hard to get the backboards complete, including the proper coloured tape. 
Today we completed the middle level backboards. We can’t wait for the hoops to be delivered.
To test some of our ideas, we tried to use our robot from 2010.
We’ll know a lot more about how to approach our design dilemma when we can see a robot moving over a barrier and onto a bridge. Programmers are keen to get their hands on the test chassis too. We like to multitask in a productive way.
K-Bots, beware…..more pop quizzes are in your future. Please learn the 
Today we were very lucky to get a tour of both of 
We saw their machine shop, and also saw one of their automated high speed assembly robots. The robots are really intricate and complicated. They are also top secret, so we couldn’t take pictures of them. We did take a picture of the warehouse. This was where we practiced driving our robot last year.
If you are interested in trying to drive a robot with the Kinect, please come to KCVI room 107 on Saturday. We’re there from noon until 3PM.
Other adventures of the day included a tube throwing competition in the courtyard since teams and the semi-formal were taking over the gyms. The courtyard is not ideal–it’s too small, but at least it’s not windy. We’ve had some pretty good throws.
Our bear mascot has a fan in the head now. We’re working on making sure that nobody’s hair gets caught in it! Safety first!
Our CAD crew has been hard at work and will continue to work all weekend long. Drawing deadlines are coming up!
We’re hoping for good weather so that we can fill our cafeteria with excitement on Saturday.
Our safety glasses have found a new home now too! We have a wall hanging with many pockets all made from fleece. Instructions can be found 
One more meeting before Kick Off…we look forward to meeting our new friends team 3710 the Cyber Falcons from Frontenac Secondary School who are joining us for the day.
