Wednesday 3/13- Medha G.
Getting Locked in
Today was our first open room back from our first season tournament in Sedalia, Missouri – and we were locked in. Even though Sedalia, Missouri didn’t work out exactly how we wanted it to, the important thing was that we knew exactly what to do. Next, our sights are set locally – a competition at the University of Minnesota called The Ten Thousand Lakes Regional that is our second qualifying tournament for this season. But even though matches at Sedalia weren’t as amazing as hoped, our team still thoroughly enjoyed this trip, and we’re all grateful we got to go!
Some of our team shared their favorite parts of Missouri. Ellie, one of our mentors, said “My favorite part of Missouri was the attitude of the kids- I’m very proud of them!” One of the students, Ally, said “I liked getting to cheer on the team and getting to hang out with all my friends. Timothy, the manufacturing lead, said, “My favorite part of going to Missouri is the fact that the robot didn’t break majorly.”
Overall, Talon thoroughly enjoyed our trip and we’re all grateful for the chance to see how our robot performs on the field. Now, we’re ready to make 10k even better. See you at the tournament!
Thursday 3/14- Medha G.
Stories from Missouri
Today, I asked students and mentors on the team to tell us their favorite stories from our first season tournament in Sedalia, Missouri.
Alex-Dylan
“On our third day at Missouri, Finals day, our entire team had to get ready by seven thirty in the morning to practice singing the national anthem. This hour was way too early for most normal people, but us, being crazy, decided that sleep wasn’t necessary. In all seriousness though, our team head downstairs to the gym to see… no other teams there. This was a public practice, and we were the only team there! Except for one other student from 1997 Stagbotics. Since he was now team-less, we lovingly adopted him onto our team and affectionately named him Alex-Dylan, to add onto the abundance of Dylans on our team. We now have a Dylan number four. We never got his contact info, but Alex-Dylan, if you’re there, you should reach out- it was lovely meeting you.” –Talon Robotics Choir
Team Self-Care
“On the way to Missouri, when we hit a rest stop, our scouting and strategy lead Vonnie decided that this was the perfect time to – you guessed it – buy face masks. When we got to our hotel, as we were lounging by the pool, she decided this was the time to break out said face masks. There were a bunch of different kinds like peel off masks, sheet masks, mud masks, and we had a lot of fun trying them on and just lounging by the pool. Hectic robotics kids trying to practice self-care in the midst of a chaotic competition- it was great! Until our captain, Dylan, decided he was also going to try out a face mask. Amidst the calm, we just had a barrage of him asking us WAYYY too many times if he was glowing. He was not glowing, but we still said yes.” -Talon Spa Squad
Pool-bot
“Technically this is not a story about our team, but it was still my favorite. One of the teams at the competition, 7662 3 Ring Circuits, were competing and their arm completely snapped off. With no other options, they did the only thing they could do- buy a kiddie pool. They went to their nearest Home Depot, bought a kiddie pool and attached it onto their robot to play defense. And they actually did really well! They took something that could’ve been a disaster and used critical thinking to get through it- and still do very well in the competition, which is a very admirable trait for robotics teams. They ended up making it to finals, and we cheered the loudest we ever had for their team. There is actually a lot of discussion about this going on on Chief Delphi– it’s just a fan thread.” -Comprehensive story from multiple students
Friday 3/15- Medha G.
SPRING CLEANING!
Today, room was emptier than normal. Nonetheless, it was filled with excitement. Minnesota is like living in a snow globe- but not today! As said by Anna of Arendelle, For the first time in forever- the doors are open wide. We even went outside to touch grass and hang out a little for the first time since the season started! In all seriousness though, since we were getting the first signs of spring, today the room was lively with spring cleaning.
In open room, a lot of our job today was to just clean up and get the robotics room sorted to make the room clean and ready for us to work. Our tables were covered with wheels, materials, and parts that were eventually put in boxes and compartments to eventually be put away. Otherwise, open room was pretty normal. We just continued work on our robot to improve it for our upcoming competition in a couple of weeks, such as CNCing new parts, planning new intakes, and thinking of new strategies we can use when we compete at 10k. Overall, the weather was warm, and open room was very cool.
Saturday 3/16 – Ally L.
Gearing up for spring break
Today is our first official day of spring break. But, like true robotics kids, we were at open room working on the robot. Our big focus for our open rooms over spring break is driver’s practice. We set up the field in the commons and began work on programming an autonomous. An autonomous is the first fifteen seconds of a match where the robot runs on preprogrammed instructions to perform tasks and score points. We also worked on our intake to improve our solutions prevent to notes from getting stuck. We also started work on some materials for our STEM women’s panel at our next regional! It was a very quiet day with few people here, but we listened to lots of music and had a good time. Overall, we got a lot done.
Sunday 3/17 – Ally L.
Happy St. Patrick’s Day!
Irish you a happy St. Patrick’s Day! Today was a busy day. We worked on our robot’s arm for scoring in the amp, which is a short, shallow target useful for strategy. We also worked on making a defense robot to play practice matches against. It is going quite well! We’re clover the moon with the results. We also improved our intake so that it is more durable. We also played several practice matches to test our driving and autonomous code! We’ll be ready to shamrock and roll at our next competition.
Stay Connected With Us During The Entire Season!
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