For our future tournaments, we need our Lego League Tables! This involved a great deal of teamwork, multi-tasking, and people finding each other’s items. We all split into teams of two and one team worked on one set of bags. It seemed focused and pretty quiet in the room, and everyone almost finished with their parts. It may take more than 1 week, but everyone is working like there’s no tomorrow! I honestly think the tables will be done next week.

 

It was very fun working with my partner, Grace! Even though we lost a few pieces, we worked to together to find a substitute! Even though our build has tan colored eye-lids, it still has an amazing part on the board! The build may be a walrus, but we can’t quite figure it out! It was so fun building and trying to figure out which pieces go where. I can admit that it was very fun!

 

We heard screams of joy where partners finished building. One set was a pink pig, another was a dog who could sit, and another was a forest biome with a cliff! Those pieces all come together to build a 3-D work of art! When people work together, people can make something amazing and out of this world in no time.

 

We also need to thank a huge fan and an awesome helper! Ms. Kinney was our sub when Mr. Lane and Mrs. Scofield were out. She was amazing with us and encouraged us all the way! Through our struggles that day, to the encouraging thoughts she pointed out, Ms. Kinney was an amazing help, and we will gladly ask her to come again!

 

Until Next Time Folks!

Hannah (Panda)

Last Saturday my mom and Mr. Lane took us to the First Lego League Kickoff at ASU. We got there and had some slight difficulties with the parking (courtesy to my mom and her deficiency for any sense of direction) Anyways, we got there and there were so many people in the building. We walked into the presentation room and were immediately drawn over to the photo booth advertising the Animal Allies theme for the year.

Hilary Mitchell from FLL gave us a preview about what was going to be happening in the competition. Meaning what the board was going to look like and what some of the challenges would be. Then we were given a schedule for all the workshops. We went to one really cool one where four adults with careers involving animals and how we can help them and do research about them. My mom and Mr. Lane also went to learn about how you can become an effective coach. We the kids decided to sit that one out!

After we ate lunch and we went to the last workshop. It was really neat to see all the parts of the programming app that we had never known how to use before that. We had this one great program where we “discretely” had Mr. Lane stand at the end of the table. The robot shot plastic balls at him, it was really funny!

Going to this function was truly an amazing experience. It was neat to get a sneak peek at all the amazing things we have planned for the next few months!

~Ella

Objective: Build the table missions and keep working on the robots.

Feel free to take the books off the table to set the pieces where they go.

If you want to see what the table should look like and what are the values for all of the points click here.

~Mr. Lane

On Saturday Mrs. Scofield, myself, Ella, and Manasi attended the FLL Season Kickoff at ASU. It was an exciting day because this is the official kickoff to our FLL season. We all got pretty excited seeing the table, going over the missions, and learning from some veteran teams. Mrs. Scofield and myself could not be more excited to get this season rocking and rolling. We know our objective is to have both teams advance to the state tournament in January. It is going to take some work, but we are on our way.

Click here to watch the video of the robot missions and points.

Shark Transport – Shark and tank completly in target (7 points)

• Tank and shark in target #2 (10 points)
• If a target score is earned – shark is touching only the tank floor and no wall (20 points)
• Nothing is ever allowed to touch the shark except the tank.

Service Dog – The warning fence is down (15 points)

• Robot has completely crossed fence from west, after traveling between the barriers.

Animal Conservation – Two identical animals are completely on the same side (20 points per pair)

• Each pair must be created through rotation of the animal conservation mission model.
• Both teams get points for all pairs.

Feeding – A piece of food is completely in a target area (10 points per piece)

• If multiple pieces of food in one area, all must match each other.

Biomimicry – The biomimicry wall completely supports the weight of the white gecko (15 points)

• The biomimicry wall supports all of the weight of the robot (32 points)
• For an object to score (white gecko or robot), no part of it may be in contact with anything but the biomimicry wall/or green gecko.
• Exception: Two scoring objects may be in contact with each other.

Milking Automation – Milk and manure have rolled out (15 points)

• Milk has rolled out, but not manure (20 points)
• The robot’s only movement of the milk and/or manure came by moving the red lever.

Panda Release – Slider looks fully open (clockwise) (10 points)

Camera Recovery – Camera completely in base (15 points)

Training and Research – Dog and trainer are completely in training and research area (12 points)

• Zoologist completely in training and research area (15 points)

Manure – Disc shaped manure samples completely in training and research area (15 points per piece)

• Only one manure sample can be transported at a time.

Bee Keeping – Bee is on beehive and no honey in beehive (12 points)

• Bee is on beehive and honey is completely in base (15 points)
• Only one option counts.

Prosthesis – Prosthesis is fitted to the pet and not held by ref  (9 points)

• Prosthesis fitted to the pet and completely in its farm target (15 points)
• Only one option counts.

Seal – Completely in base and not broken (1 point)

Milk in Base – All three milk containers in base (1 point)

Milk on the Ramp – All three milk containers supported by the ramp (2 points)

• All three milk containers supported by the ramp and nothing else supported or touching the ramp (3 points)

Manure – 12 manure samples completely in training and research area (5 points)

Penalties: A team gets penalties for interrupting the robot. The referee places one manure sample in white triangle as a penalty object.

Not more than 5 penalties per match.

Penalty points = -6 per manure piece. 

~Mr. Lane

 

 

 

Last week, we received the chance to undergo the unique and fascinating virtual reality program known as zSpace. Everyone was extremely excited to use modern technology created with the help of countless talented females. When the time came, our guide, Thessa Monaco, escorted us to the company’s portable bus and explained that with the help of zSpace, we would be able to perform multiple exciting and educational activities in a one-of-a-kind 4D experience.

Absolutely thrilled, we open the doors and were immediately speechless. The inside was huge! Its white walls and huge tech screens gave the portable a futuristic look. We all picked partners and nearly tripped over each other trying to get to a station. After putting on our glasses and picking up the stylist, we began exploring and found that it was everything we would have hoped for. With options, such as virtually dissecting animals and receiving a close look at various parts of the human body, time absolutely flew by. This experience was extremely gratifying and further influenced us all to continue pursuing a future in computer science.

It is for these reasons that we all want to thank you Mrs. Monaco. You opened our eyes and inspired us all. zSpace is a phenomenal program and we hope that they are able to provide the same message to girls of all kinds across the globe. We are so grateful to you for giving us this experience!

~Kendall (7th Grade)        

This past Wednesday morning a few of the Moxie Girls had the opportunity to speak at the District Office for all of the K-12 administrators for the entire district. Last week Dr. Tseunis spoke about what was going on at Sierra Verde with the Moxie Girls and they asked if we could do a 10 minute presentation on the Moxie Girls. We were bummed we could not bring all of the girls to the District Office, but they were all represented very well. Giving me and Mrs. Scofield only ten minutes to talk is ludicrous since we can barely talk about the weather in ten minutes. We did our best to paint a picture of the importance of getting more females into Computer Science and STEM related careers.

This is such a great picture!!! I wish I did not look like a secret service agent.

Here are the slides we presented to the K-12 administrators.

We took Onella from 6th grade, Ella from 7th grade, and Kendall from 7th grade. Just to give you an idea of how powerful our students words were here is Kendall’s speech.

“Hello, my name is Kendall and I’m a 7th grader at Sierra Verde STEM Academy. This year our school took a huge leap in the field of Computer Sciences by creating Moxie Girls, an all-female high-tech organization in which 6th – 8th graders receive a hands on experience with various forms of modern technology. Thus far, we have coded using scratch on code.org and were introduced to a civil engineering student pursuing her masters at ASU. In the future, we plan to compete in various robotics competitions and will additionally meet more talented women who help to inspire us to continue studying STEM and computer science. As of now, Moxie Girls has taught me that its not your gender that matters, but rather how hard you are willing to work. Remember, you can do anything you set your mind to. Thank you for the opportunity to speak with you concerning Moxie Girls. I am throughly grateful for the chance to interact with so many talented ladies who have the potential to eventually change the world.”

~Kendall

#csforall #moxiegirls #gotmoxie #goosebumps

The Future

We had to rush back to school to get there before the bell. Dr. Tseunis kept emailing me telling the girls were the stars of the day. Everyone was talking about the Moxie Girls. I was floored. As we were speaking it was amazing to look out in the crowd. Everyone in the crowd was on the edge of their seat wanting more. The Moxie Girls were confidant and spoke so eloquently to a crowd of more than one hundred people. They are the future of the Computer Science World. The final email from Dr. Tseunis said “not a few, but several schools want to get a Moxie Girls club started at their school.”

Mrs. Scofield and myself are in awe these girls are already having an impact on females in computer science to a degree that we will never truly understand. I have have sat and spent some time thinking of the impact of the Moxie Girls and I cannot truly grasp what is going on right now. These girls are blowing up and we have not even got started.

This is a great picture because Mrs. Scofield and myself are smiling as we share about the impact the Moxie Girls are already having. The best part of this picture is the three administrators having a conversation about females in computer science. These girls are doing their jobs.

~Mr. Lane

Yes!