Tag Archives: WAFFLES

Tournament Count Down

Posted on November 18, 2010 by | Leave a comment

teamWe got our new purple shirts today!  It’s just in time for our FLL practice tournament on Saturday.  There’s still some details to sort out–we’ve had some last minute additions to our tournament roster.  Scheduling 8 teams on the game table requires a bit of math!

While some of us planned, others kept going with our prototypes.  Our favourite little helper was sawing up a storm.

helping out

We worked hard to drill the holes in just the right places….

drill

…and by the end of today’s meeting things started to take shape–we’ve got wheels now!

drive

It’s important to always clean up as you go.  Thank goodness for vacuum cleaners.

clean up

Far away from sawdust, our beta testers were busy installing new software that came in the mail today.

betatest

Others finished up writing thank you cards to our FLL judges and out of town tournament helpers.  We appreciate all the help that we are getting from our volunteers.

thank you

The fun begins on Saturday at 10AM (volunteers need to be there at 8:30, teams at 9).  Come see what amazing lego robots have been built by all of the FLL teams.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in 2010 pre-build, 2010 skill building

Tagged , , , , , , ,

Multi-Tasking Tuesday

Posted on October 26, 2010 by | Leave a comment

Today we worked on many different things.  Some of us were beta-testing programming, and others prototyped, and a few of us added the finishing touches to our bulletin board.  We use our bulletin board for communication amongst team members, and for raising awareness in the school. bulletin boardWe have put up our calendar, media coverage, some photos, folders with forms and newsletters, and now our very first edition of the K-Botics Quarterly.  Check it out for yourself!  We’re going to mail newsletters to our sponsors in the fall, winter, and spring.  We want everyone to be very informed this season!

Something special that we do, is to send thank you cards to our sponsors, friends and helpers to acknowledge contributions to our team.  We have a new design every year, created by the more artistic team members.  This year our thank you card robot is wearing a cool hat.

robot Maybe this was inspired by some of our knitted hats?JoshJosh has been wearing his new hat all day! little helperWe were glad to have a visiting member of the W.A.F.F.L.E.S. help us with our prototyping.  That new wheel that we used today made a big difference in our launching capabilities. launchWe also devised a plan for loading up our launcher with close to 20 balls.  We know that we are limited to three at a time for our competition, but it was fun to watch them all get launched at once.

“I can almost taste the rainbow” -Mike (mentor)

→ Leave a comment

Posted in 2010 pre-build, 2010 skill building

Tagged , , , , , , , ,

Shoreline Cleanup

Posted on September 19, 2010 by | Leave a comment

lake ontarioWhat a great day to gather by the water and do our part in the Great Canadian Shoreline Cleanup.  Twelve of us (k-bots, W.A.F.F.L.E.S. and mentors) met to clean up Lakeshore Park.

gloves on!

Part of the Shoreline Cleanup involves keeping a tally of the trash we found.  Eventually all of the national statistics will be compiled and released to the public.

waterfront

Our little group cleaned up about 300 meters of rocky shoreline….rocky shore

…among the trees and shrubs by the water….

 

squid monster

Look....a squid monster in his natural habitat!

 

When we started, it looked like the shoreline was already clean.  However, upon closer inspection, there was lots of garbage lurking amongst the boulders.

 

waterfront

hey look! there's a carpet

 

Want to know what we found?  It’s actually a rather impressive (and kinda sad) list.  We’re glad that all of this is no longer on the shore.

  • 22 plastic bottles
  • 14 cans
  • 12 food wrappers
  • 9 plastic bags
  • 9 cups/cutlery
  • 8 bits of paper
  • 7 pieces of packing material
  • 3 glass bottles
  • 3 tennis balls
  • 2 areas of broken glass
  • 2 pieces of metal
  • 1 cigarette
  • 1 bottle cap
  • 1 paper bag
  • 1 sock
  • 1 carpet
  • 1 back of a TV
  • 1 piece of window screen
  • 1 garden hose (well, half of it is still under a boulder)
  • 1 net
  • 1 wire
  • 1 hairband
  • 1 beach toy
  • 1 rope
  • 1 pen
  • 1 juice box
  • 1 t-shirt
  • 1 rusted piece from a Nissan car
  • 1 pair of destroyed sunglasses
  • 1 part of a shoe
  • 1 part of a composter

finished

It feels great to do something for our city, and for our environment.  We had lots of fun, and made memories as a team.

→ Leave a comment

Posted in 2010 pre-build

Tagged , , , ,

Laser Tag

Posted on June 28, 2010 by | 1 Comment

On the weekend about 20 of us gathered to play laser tag.  There were W.A.F.F.L.E.S (FLL) and Mini W.A.F.F.L.E.S (Jr. FLL) and VEX and K-Botics (FRC) and mentors of all sorts.

WAFFLES, VEX, K-Botics and mentors

This was our first social meeting of the summer, and it was fun to let loose and have a little fun all together. We divided up into two teams (red vs. blue) and put on the laser tag suits–slip on vests with a chest plate, two shoulder pads and a back plate that act as targets worth different amounts of points.

There are target points on the ceiling to aim for as well, but doing so can leave you vulnerable to attack.  We all learned to work together and watch our back because that back target is very vulnerable.

We found that the younger members were at a definite advantage, because everyone, particularly mentors felt bad for shooting at them.  These little ones were VERY determined to get team points, so they often circled the mentors.

“The mentors were walking around in a clump squeeling like little girls, and Remi freaked out whenever he got shot”  -Henry (Grade 12)

Henry did really well, scoring 22.8 thousand which was the second highest of the month! Way to go Henry.

Playing laser tag was such fun, it made us rely on our team mates, and work together.  It could become a yearly tradition for FIRST teams in Kingston.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Fun

Tagged , , , , , ,

WAFFLES and K-Botics On The Road Again!

Posted on June 16, 2010 by | 1 Comment

Today we set off after school in the pouring rain to visit one of our local elementary schools to show and tell what we’ve been up to this season.

Our plans of an outdoor demonstration had to be cancelled, but the grades 5-8 students graciously allowed us space in their classroom to set up the LEGO field table, and to drive our robot around.

We explained about FIRST, and talked about what we do during build season, and other parts of the year.  We shared about the design process, something that the students experienced when they built popsicle stick bridges.  We shared about the fun of competition, and the team bonding that occurs through the year.  It was clear by the excellent questions that our audience was very interested in what we are doing.  They are so keen that it might be possible to start several new FLL teams for the fall.

Our friends the W.A.F.F.L.E.S. talked about their season, demonstrated some of their robot features, and talked about some of the challenges that they faced while building their LEGO robot.  We were able to draw connections between their robot and ours–the central computer, the sensors, gears, motors, wheels and design creativity.  We are always impressed at the presentation skills of our young friends.  Good job!!

At the end of the presentation we drove our robot around, demonstrating the kicking skills, and surprising our audience!  We then gave them the chance to get a closer look–we opened up our robot and showed some of the inner workings to the enthusiastic students.

Hopefully these students have been inspired to think of science, technology and engineering in a new way.  Hopefully they have been inspired to try something new, and maybe start a team of their own next year.  We ended the day by inviting all of the graduating grade 8 students to come join us in the fall, and experience FIRST for themselves.

→ 1 Comment

Posted in Misc.

Tagged , , , , ,