Day 4

Today was mostly a day to conclude what we had done so far. Our mentors Holly, Stephen, Jessa, and our newest mentor Emma, joined us during the meeting to see our various prototypes and to aid us going forward.

First we began by working in small groups in different areas. Annie led a small workshop in construction basics, such as drilling and sawing, while the animation team started bouncing around ideas to complete the animation challenge: aliens and saving the world...

Or something like that.

Another group started to tackle the minibot prototype. We have two basic ideas so far, and today we focused on using wheels that surround the pole using the NXT system. We're not actually planning on using the NXT, we will later be exploring the possibility of using a "switch" to complete a circuit which will then start the robot moving.

But that's a whole different story.

Next, we showed the mentors the prototypes we completed yesterday to get their perspectives. During that time we were able to throw ideas back and forth about the pros and cons of each concept. One thing that I think is important to keep in mind, as Stephen said, is that any of these ideas could work better than the other based on what complete system we decide on. The problem is in choosing which one to dive into. Conquering this challenge will be the focus of tomorrow's meeting.

But of course, I'll just leave that for tomorrow ;)

~Tobi - a senior blogger