We're working on the video today. We won't have time to edit it before MoonBots Mini-Camp ends, but we will get all our footage, and we'll edit it when I get back from my trip. Brenden will be at camp that week, but we've talked about how we want the video structured and he's fine with us finishing it up without him.
Brenden is a natural at talking on camera. He can extemporize things like, "We would like to leave a robot on the moon that could travel and take pictures and video that we could see on Earth. This would be useful because less than 5% of the moon's surface has been explored." When we came across that fact in our research yesterday, he immediately grasped it as a hook for talking about the project. I'd also spotted it as something useful we could use in our video, but he didn't need me to point it out to him.
Meanwhile, Mitchal has a terrific grasp of the vocabulary of filmmaking. He has been full of ideas for how the film should be structured, and it's going to be great, with an intro where the boys introduce themselves, then title screens with information about the team, our project, and the MoonBots challenge, and then footage of them describing their project. Mitchal even had an idea for the music to play behind the title sequence.
It's been a fun mini-camp. I think we all have enjoyed it, though the team wasn't too thrilled with the part of the day yesterday where we read up on moon-related research and science:
Me: Kid 1, are you paying attention?
Kid 1: Yes. It's just that I don't like school.
Me: This isn't school.
Kid 2: No. It just feels like it.
Me, thinking: I can just call your moms and send you home anytime, you little ingrates.
I hope they at least recognize that they got useful information from our Review of Moon Science and Lore. I can see that they did!
That was our only glitch. It's been terrific otherwise.
I was just chatting with Mitchal's mom and saying that we may not make it to Phase 2, but we have really done our best. And our best is pretty darn good. I'm really proud of the team.
In Phase 2, we will have to create a to-scale design for our landscape, and then build the landscape and have our robot navigate it within certain parameters. The robot will have to start from a base, climb a ridge 6 inches high, and collect objects from the other side. These could represent water ice, heritage artifacts (I suggest astronaut pee bags but the team probably won't go for it), power cells, or anything that could be harvested on the moon. Then the robot has to return over the ridge with what it has collected, and touch the starting base to complete the mission.
Eric and I have done some similar projects, using a book called The Mayan Adventure, though nothing this ambitious. So we have some experience with thinking through our design and program, testing, and de-bugging.
If we don't make it to Phase 2, we're going to do something anyway. We might go ahead and do the Phase 2 challenge, or we might choose a different project. Last year, a friend gave me the materials for a First Lego League team one of her sons had been on, and we could set that up and do the challenges from it. Or we could do something else. We have lots of options.
We'll do something, though. The team is enthusiastic, full of good ideas, and eager to get into the nitty-gritty of building and programming. It would be lovely to make it to Phase 2 and get a brand-new Mindstorms 2.0 set, 25 Lego baseplates, a Dexter Industries solar power cell for Mindstorms, and a chunk of money to buy supplies. But that's not necessary. I hung out on eBay a lot earlier this year and managed to get some good deals, so we have three Mindstorms sets already, and more than plenty of bricks and pieces.
And goodness knows, the team has plenty of ideas. And if they run out, I have one or two books they can browse through for inspiration.
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