3D-Printed Models

Our 3D models of Mars habitats came back from Ponoko.  After we designed them in Tinkercad, coach Matt hollowed them out and tweaked them for printing. Maybe we'll print one larger, but cost goes up roughly by n cubed!

MindCuber works!

The club finished its MindCuber!

MindCuber Test This Friday!

We're almost done with building all of MindCuber's sub-assemblies. On Friday we should be able to finish assembly and do our first test run.  Be prepared for it to have trouble working at first :-)  That's part of being engineers on a big project.

Also, soon we will post our discoveries about how school groups can work together on MindCuber.  We've also been in touch with the creator, David Gilday, who offered some useful thoughts which we'll discuss this Friday.

MindCuber Build Steps on Friday

Last week we started designing our own Rubik's Cube-turning robot, and some ideas came out of it.


This week, we're bringing in building plans for David Gilday's MindCuber!  

We can build up to two copies of this bot, but kids who want to continue with their own designs can do so.

To Mars

We decided to first Design a Martian Habitat, since there's a contest that ends April 6th.  We sketched some design ideas on paper, but now have to go back and find ways to make them practical.  We're going to use Tinkercad.com for 3D design, so ask your parents if you can use it at home to practice during the week, between meetings.

Picking Spring Projects

This week we'll discuss several possible projects, and tie-ins to this June's Seattle Science Festival.  Ideas:

* Laser cutting - building system?  Simple & repeatable.

* Rubik's Cube. Solve the cube, and build a Mindstorms solver.

* Contest: Design a Martian Habitat.

We'll also update this blog regularly, so check in here every couple of days.

Robotics Teams Finish Season Strong

Great job everyone!  

Here's what should appear in the bulletin next week:

"Lafayette robotics teams had a great showing at the South Seattle FLL robot tournament on Saturday, Dec. 2nd.  The Mystic Mindstormers and Lego Minds, a mix of 2nd and 3rd graders, were the youngest teams there and outscored a number of older teams.  The girls team, the Go-Go Bots, scored well and won a Core Values Award for Gracious Professionalism.  Congratulations to all the team members."

* Remember, we have no team meetings in December.  We'll pick up again in January with new projects and activities.  But pop back here to the blog through the month, as we'll be posting some ideas and cool links.

* Parents, we still need your good photos from the tournament, so we can pick a nice one for the yearbook.