KU Engineering Expo

Lining things up

For the last couple of months, Caiden has been busy getting ready for the KU Engineering Expo with his ELP class. From what I can tell, Caiden thoroughly enjoyed this experience, and we are thankful for teachers (and even some parents) who were willing to put in the extra time this project required!

Last year, the kids did the Egg Drop Challenge but were unable to go compete due to a snowstorm. The main goal of this year's challenge was to program a small robot to go from Point A to Point B in less than 4 seconds, all while avoiding obstacles. Caiden's group named their robot "Robobird" and they decided to take a direct route to Point B instead of following a marked line with a light sensor.

Last Friday was the big day, so they traveled up to Lawrence and made many trial runs before getting a fast time. It sounds like the board they had at KU was not really up to par, so they had trouble with it veering to the right. (I mean really, what can you expect from KU?) Just kidding - I had to get a jab in there somewhere! After the board was straightened out, they had no trouble at all and managed to have the fastest time. They got first place out of 13 teams and the other Goessel team got third place. We are so happy that Caiden has teachers who are willing to put in the time to work on challenging projects - and who recognize when kids thrive on something like this. It takes their learning further!

We're proud of you, Caiden!

Thanks to Logan's mom for these pictures:

Not sure about the Jayhawk! :)

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