Domo origato, Mr. Roboto

What to do over spring break.....what to do?  It's a question parents everywhere ask themselves.  Over time, it seems that more and more options pop up for kids, with every possible interest addressed with camps galore.  We typically stay away from spring break camps.  For one, it's financially tough to put one, let alone TWO, let alone three, four or five kids, in a week long camp.  The other reason, well, after weeks and weeks of shuffling and schlepping kids and gear from school and home, to soccer practice and home, to scouts and home, its nice to just NOT have to shuffle and schlep.

All that being said, the older boys went to a spring break camp.  Wow, that was an about face!  A few fellow boy scouts are involved in a robotics group and they decided to put together a week long camp.  The boys were offered a discounted session fee and their enthusiasm for the camp was nearly tangible.  If you know me, you know I am a very punctual person.  And my kids know that.  This should tell you how excited they were for it....every day they encouraged me to get them there 20 minutes early-take into consideration my 'on time' is usually 5-10 minutes early, that meant they wanted to get there 30 minutes early!  Every. Day.

The campers were put into groups (J far left bottom row)

 (Gregory has been really into Texas Tech lately....I think he had some influence on the team's name, no? G is far left, bottom row with the half red face...I can see him 10 years from now at a college game, bare chested and all painted up)

Their goal?  Build a robot to handle the 'problem' they were given at the start of the camp.  Each team was given the same parts to build their robot, but could use those parts however they chose to.

4 groups, 4 robots, one goal...the robot needed to be able to pick up as many golf balls and deliver the balls to a drop off point to be sorted by another team member. There were 3 different colored golf balls, each worth a certain amount of points.

 As luck would have it, Gregory and Jacob ended up driving their respective team's robot in one of the final 3 rounds that determined the winner...at the same time!  They said it was totally random and I was a little concerned about competitiveness between them, but they did just fine, no gloating was heard!

 And the winning team?  Team Yellow!

 The week long experience really peaked their interest in joining the team this fall.  The team competes in district and regional competitions after a 6 week time period of  intensive robot building.  They even have to write up a technical manual as to how the robot works......hmm, I bet I could learn from that...but then again, it all may be over my head!  Broadening their horizons-it sure is neat to see their interests grow over time.  Maybe they can figure out how to build a robot that'll do all their stinky laundry..........