Becton-Dickinson Field Trip
Together with the Hyperbots, Team Rex toured the local Becton-Dickinson site on 8/20/2010. The engineers showed us how they build and operate fully automated machines to make microscopic slides and how the slides are moved and examined by a computer system.
View our pictures here.
The new field kit arrived back in August. It took us two days to assemble everything and put it onto the mat. Our first impression was that there is much more to do in this year's challenge.
This is the cake we made for the season kick-off on September 3rd. We met with the Hyperbots team to watch the video clips explaining the challenge, had pizza and shared the cake with the Lego candy pieces. Yumm!
On October 28, 2010 Team Rex visited Alamance Ear, Nose to interview Dr. McQueen and his nurse Debra Elkins. Dr. McQueen is an expert in treating allergies and answered all our questions that were related to our research project, food allergies. We learned that allergies are an immune system reaction and how they differ from a food intolerance. Dr. McQueen explained prevention and treatment options for allergies in general.
We presented our food label scanner and showed how the device can help shoppers to avoid food they might be allergic to. Dr. McQueen liked our device and believes that this kind of technology could help many people.
Interview with Dr. McQueen
After the interview eith Dr. McQueen we had a cookout with hot dogs and smores. Everybody had a jolly good time and enjoyed the food.
See pictures.
Scrimmage at Elon University
This year, there are four FLL teams in Alamance county. The teams are helping out each other and on November 11, 2010 we met at Elon University for a scrimmage organized by Kyle Altman and Joel Hollingsworth who both teach there.
We had two tables set up and the teams could practive their runs, share their robot designs and trade ideas to solve the challenges.
Team Rex showed their skit to give the rookie teams an impression of how a presentation to the judges at the tournament might look like.
Click here to see the pictures from the scrimmage.
The Rockin' Robots are a new team that formed around Elon University and has five young team members.
From left to right: Anna, Casidy, Beren, Andrew, Lily
Based in Mebane, NC, the Brick Blasters are four home schooled children. This is their first year with FLL.
From left to right: Mathew, Ben (from back), Jacob, Haylee.
The Hyperbots are six kids meeting at the Hypermind store in Burlington. The store is known for their good board games and is hosting game nights and tournaments for card and strategy games on a regular basis. Jan comes from last year's Team Rex and is sharing his experience from the past two years with the five rookies on the team.
From left to right: Rachael, Jan, William, Ian (back).
Not present: Schae and Kieran.
Team Rex won first place in the Project category with our research on food allergies and our solution to buying groceries:
The Tech Rex Food Scanner.
Our robot also came in first with 315 points ahead of the Rockin' Robots (260 points) and the Hyperbots (250 points), all teams from Alamance county.
A funny clip about the medicine dispenser we took during the development phase. Play.
Test run the night before the tournament yielded 370 points. Play.
Winning 315 point run at the Region 3 tournament in Greensboro. Play.
After months of hard work and long hours perfecting the robot, the day of the tournament was finally here. Being close to Greensboro, the Alamance county teams were all competing in the Region 3 qualifier held at the A&T University. All four team did great and will advance to the State trournament at the end of January.
Saturday, December 11, 2010 - Greensboro, A&T University
North Carolina Region 3 Qualifying Tournament
The NC State competition was a big success for all teams. A&T University and Shayla Sharpe with Sharpe Pursuits did an outstanding job organizing the event. The gym at A&T was a perfect venue with the competition area on the field and the pits elevated and surrounding the audience seats and competition area. The judging sessions took place in individual class rooms allowing the judges to give their full attention to the teams.
Saturday, January 29, 2011 - Greensboro, A&T University
North Carolina State Tournament
The skit is presented to the same panel of judges we had at the qualifiers.
Play.
We had a problem with the blue cast and the panels and received 350 points for our 3rd run. Play.
Second and winning 375 point run at the NC State tournament in Greensboro. Play.
First robot run at the NC State competition with 370 points. Play.
Test run with 400 points about a week before the competition. Play.
After a good techincal judging session, Team Rex was awarded the first place in the robot design category. We were one of just a few team that had solved the problem with the panels that needed to be flipped.
Though none of the three runs came in perfectly, we still had the best robot run at the competition with 375 points.
See pictures from the tournament.
Wednesday, February 17, 2011 - Elon
Alamance County FLL Teams on Fox8 TV
The Alamance County teams were contacted by Tom Britt from Fox8 asking for a demo of our robots and interviews with the teams. We met Tom and the camera man Steven at our house where they spent an hour talking to the teams and filming the robots and the kids.
The show was aired the following Wednesday , February 23rd on the Fox8 Morning News.
Click here for the coverage on Fox8.
And here are a few pictures we took, including the ice cream party for Owen's birthday afterwards.
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