The 20th Annual East Cobber Parade and Festival was a huge success all the way around. The weather held out: it wasn't too hot or too cold, and although the wind kicked up a little, it wasn't a problem. All the team members worked together beautifully. We had compliment after compliment from the community and other businesses telling us how impressed they were with our students - they were polite, well mannered, professional and so SMART! Most people were blown away by seeing what the kids had built and accomplished. Many told us that they wish that they had this opportunity when they were in school. Even more told us (and the students) to stick with it, as this program would be a great benefit to them now, for college, and for future jobs.
We outreached to hundreds of people through the parade and afterwards at the festival, and had a lot of interest in our program. The t-shirt/stress ball cannon was a big hit during the parade and at the festival where we had a shoot-off with the Walton team.
During the Festival itself, we promoted GRITS and our upcoming
Minecraft Camp which had many kids really, really (really) excited.
We also featured a STEM activity with bubbles - EVERYONE enjoyed playing with the bubbles, and we snuck some science in there on the sly (elasticity, surface tension, chemistry, light, and even geometry) so that kids could experience the fact that science and math are everywhere, and that it's FUN.
More fun was had by kids driving our outreach robot. We had all ages and sizes of kids driving the robot (and some parents got in on the action too!). After a quick explanation on how to drive, they took turns driving it around the test site. We had a pretty long line going at one point.
Drivers were rewarded with a really cute "Certified Robot Driver" sticker and came away with a more personal man/machine connection and saw that robots are fun and not scary or "something out of my league".
It was especially gratifying to see all the girls who stepped up to take the controls. From the little, little ones, to cheerleaders in ponytails and bows, all the girls who drove the robot came away with a sense of accomplishment. What a great feeling to know that our team may have helped inspire some of them to pursue careers in STEM.
That's what yesterday was all about... Inspiring the community and kids about STEM, robotics and our team. We had fun getting the word out there through our robots, our activities and our team members.
