Junior Robotics Special Meetings

Today, we refired the Junior Robotics program for our special events. We've combined 30 of our FLL Jr. kiddos into five teams to participate in the FLL Jr. Exposition at LEGOLand.  We have done this every year since we started FLL Jr. and it's such a great way to wrap up the season.  Through the quarter auction fundraiser, and reduced event pricing from LEGOLand, we are able to offer families a discount for tickets on the day of the expo.  All of our team members who mentor in Junior Robotics are able to come along and enjoy a day at the park with the FLL Jr. kids.

Additionally, we have one FLL team that advanced to Championships and they are itching to start refining their robot for that event.  We are so proud of them and can't wait to see what they do between now and then!

Of course, the FTC team has been meeting regularly since September, building a very cool robot for the Relic Recovery challenge.  They meet in the same space as our team and have become such a great addition to our evenings!  We can't say how proud we are of them, and how happy we are to be mentoring such a great group of middle schoolers!

AAUW and Victor Valley College's Celebrating Women in Mathematics and Science

We have been presenting at the AAUW and Victor Valley College's Celebrating Women in Mathematics and Science for several years.  This year, our mentor wasn't able to attend, so we asked Miranda Fike, one of our friends from NASA, to present with us in her place.  It was awesome! She did a presentation about robots and engineering and shared her story with all the girls. Everyone enjoyed the presentation and then had fun with the workshop that I led with two other female team members. We taught the girls about closed circuits by making a light up, paper flower using an LED light, a battery, and copper tape. We had a blast this year and can't wait for next years conference!

-Rocky

Chili Cook Off News

We've got a lot going on with the Chili Cook-Off preparations!

In case you weren't aware, the Chili Cook-Off is our big community fundraiser.  The event features chili from home cooks and professional chefs, a silent auction, and the unveiling of our robot for the FIRST PowerUp competition!

Our guest speaker will be Roger Hayes, owner of Sierra Technical Services, a Tehachapi based aerospace company that is quickly making a name for itself.  We are excited to hear what he has to share with us!

Items for the silent auction already include park-hopper passes for DisneyLand, Magic Mountain tickets, gift certificates and donated items from local businesses, and even CPR/First Aid training courses. It's going to be a great event!

To get tickets at a discounted price, look for our team members outside of Albertsons this month!  They will be there most Fridays and Saturdays from 3 to 6 PM. Otherwise, visit our EventBrite page to pick some tickets up online.

It's almost time for FIRST PowerUp!

Oh boy, it's build season!  We are going to plunge into build season really soon, so Outreach is going to relax, a little...  Our Junior Robotics program will start back up on January 29 and February 5, so that our FLL Jr. kiddos can team up and prepare for LEGOLand and the Cream Cookie Builders can prepare for the Central California FLL Championships!  We also have some school visits planned, and the AAUW and Victor Valley College, "Celebrating Women in Mathematics and Science" conference, but really, we are going to focus on building a robot and the upcoming FRC Challenge!