Friday night’s demo at Blue Bell Elementary School was a great experience for the kids as well as the team. Roughly five or six team members came along with Kirsten and Mr. Ostrow so we had enough help the whole night. We set up the Sparky’s Robot World bots so the kids could shoot the balls and drive the robots around. We had to be a little bit innovative about what we wanted to do with the robots, so, in honor of Super Bowl weekend, we designed field goal posts so the kids could have a challenging and fun task to perform, and it was great that the theme coincided with something relative to the real world.
With an age range of children from 3 through 10 there 
was also a wide range of skill. Some kids quickly picked up on how to use the controls while others needed a little more practice (especially a 3-year-old that smashed a robot into the control table and later again into a wall). The kids got a kick out of making the field goal and we were sure to reward them with Team 341 buttons and energetic “high fives”. We had a few mechanical problems but beyond that, everything went well and the kids had a blast. As a rookie and mentor to the kids, I think the demo served its purpose. By giving them the opportunity to learn about robots and actually interact and drive such complex machinery, we invested into the future of this program by showing them the unlimited potential and creativity of robotics. I have no doubt in my mind that some of those kids we met on Friday will become future members of Team 341.
