Post 5

Saturday's State tournament went really well. It was a long day, but I got to see some really cool ideas, so it was definitely worth it. As I had hoped and suspected, teams that had advanced to State used their time very effectively to improve their performances and I was very happy. Unfortunately, I can't describe any of the solutions in detail, but some of the designs I saw just blew me away. The top two teams from each division and each problem, 30 teams total, get to advance to the World Finals, held this year at Iowa State University in Aimes, Iowa where they will compete against the best teams from other states as well as teams from all over the world. The best of luck to them!

Post 4

Since I'll be using my Odyssey if the Mind work as my volunteering, I guess I'll explain a little about what I do. The problem I'm judging is called "Ooh-motional Vehicle" and the challenge is for teams to make a vehicle which one of them can ride on that also changes emotion. The teams are judged on the creativity and engineering of their design as well as the story they make up to go with the car. Some of the ideas that were shown were very cool, but unfortunately there were a lot of penalties and missed points (for reasons I can't disclose in the interest of secrecy). Saturday's competition will feature the best teams from all the regions, so I'm very hopeful that they will have corrected their mistakes and do even better this time.

Post 3

So it turns out that too many people are going to Lamar, so I can't go there. I've made my second choice, Lee High School, but I'm still waiting to here back about that. I'm going to have to take the bus to get there, which is quite unfortunate, but I don't really have much of a choice. All in all, it's not too bad and things will probably work out pretty well, so I guess I shouldn't really complain. Until I hear back about Lee, there's not really much else to say.

Post 2

As I'm sure you've read from other people, an e-mail was sent out today saying that background checks have not been finished yet. They want to hopefully have us start our projects next week, so until then, there's not really much to say.

Post 1

I haven't chosen which school I want to volunteer at, but I think my top 2 choices are Lamar High School and Lee High School. Lamar is the only school on the list that I can get to because I live on campus and don't have a car. All of the other schools are pretty far away, which could be a problem if I don't get Lamar. The school I really wanted to volunteer at is Askew Elementary, which is where I went to school and is right down the street from my house, but it's not on the list. That's all I have to say and I'm bad at closings, so, the end.