Thursday, April 29, 2010

Video Slideshow

Here are some more photos of our team from the World Festival. Special thanks to Brandon Newendorp, FLL photographer extraordinaire for letting us use his photos (#3-13)! You can check out more of his photos at www.newendorp.com/photos.

Monday, April 19, 2010

The Inventioneers are the FLL World Champions!

Hi everyone!

We are so excited to share our latest news - on Saturday, April 17, 2010, the Inventioneers became the FLL World Champions! It is a dream come true for our team! Our robot was awesome on the competition tables scoring perfect 400's in three out of four rounds and when speed was the goal, our robot scored a perfect 400 in 91 seconds - faster than any other robot at the competition!


We'll be sharing more at our other blog: www.TheInventioneersOnTheRoad.blogspot.com
over the next few days. It's been so busy and exciting and exhausting that we just haven't had time to post anything.

We want to thank all of our supporters and our sponsors - thank you for believing in us!!!!

Monday, April 12, 2010

Teambuilding with Games

The Costume Relay Game

Supplies:
Two sets of funny costume pieces like hats, scarves, capes, over sized shirts, baggie pants, gloves, etc.

Game set up:
Make a starting line and 30 feet away make another line. Divide the costumes into 2 equal piles at the starting line.

Playing the game:
Divide the people into 2 equal teams. Each team begins at the starting line behind a costume pile. The first person from each team quickly puts on all the costumes in his pile, runs to the other line, runs back to the starting line, and takes off the costumes. The next person on his team does the same thing until everyone on the team has a turn. The team that finishes first is the winner.

This is a fun teamwork game or play it with teams you mentor.



Teambuilding with Snacks!

As many of you know from our travelblog (www.TheInventioneersOnTheRoad.blogspot.com), we are heading down to Atlanta this week for the World Festival! Now that we're on the road, we're really missing all our homemade snacks! We're dreaming of our current favorite which we are sharing with you below. Yum, yum, yum!

Blondie Brownies

1c butter, melted
2t baking powder
1t vanilla
2 eggs
2c brown sugar
1/4t salt
2c flour
1c chocolate chips

Mix butter and sugar. Add baking powder, salt, and vanilla. Add flour. Whisk eggs and add. Add chips. Pour into greased 13x9 pan. Bake at 350 degrees f 25-30 minutes(center will be gooey).


Saturday, April 10, 2010

The Inventioneers are Invited to be Guest Speakers

Hi everyone,

We're spending lots of time at our new blog www.TheInventioneersOnTheRoad.blogspot.com but we don't want to get behind on this one! We're getting ready to speak at the New Hampshire Traffic Safety Conference on April 27th! We were invited to share our Don't DUIT Campaign and our SMARTwheel with traffic safety professionals from around New England! Check out the brochure:

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

Inventioneers Top 10 Tips for the Off-Season

Tip #8

Set up some robot design/build sessions to improve your team's skills in those areas. If you have a good builder on your team, this is a great way for him/her to share those skills. If you need some outside help, you can contact a veteran team – the Inventioneers are always available for this!

Check your local bookstore or the web for books about NXT robots. We like Eric Wang’s book Engineering with LEGO Bricks and Robolab (http://www.collegehousebooks.com/lego_bricks_3.htm ). Even if you are not using Robolab software (this is one of the two programming languages permitted by FLL – the other is the software that comes with the Mindstorms kit - NXT G. - we have 8 years of experience using Robolab and are happy to provide training workshops), the book has some good building exercises to try.


Also, check out internet sources for other building tips. Check out Youtube videos of other teams and other year’s challenges. These cool robots might spark creative ideas in your team.

Monday, April 5, 2010

We Have a New "Travelblog", Check it Out!

HI everyone,

We are going to be writing about our adventures getting ready for the World Festival, our trip (by car) down to Atlanta and back, and of course all our adventures at the tournament. Check it out at:
www.TheInventioneersOnTheRoad.blogspot.com!