Month: June 2023

Nearly back to Cornwall, but making a quick detour for a picnic at Exeter Services. We’ve all managed a bit of a sleep on the coach too.

Well, after a fun but busy week it’s time to get these Pumpkins back home. It’s an overnight flight (hopefully a chance for a nap!) and when we wake up we’ll be back in England. See you all soon!

Despite all being very, very tired we still managed to enjoy an animation workshop at the Apple Store, a visit to the AI Lab at the MIT Museum and a walking tour of the Boston Freedom Trail.  All this and we managed to get an early(ish) night too!

This afternoon we were treated to a funny and informative tour of Boston, including many historical locations linked to the history of Boston, America and indeed the American Revolution.

This morning we’ve been at the Apple Store on Boylston street, working with Mike and Terrance from Apple to create our own ‘Snoopy in Space’ themed animations in the Procreate app.

What better way to start the day than with a surprise waffle breakfast?!

We’re off to central Boston today, starting at the Apple Store for an animation workshop.

Wow, what a day!

I am thrilled to say that the Penpol Pumpkins have won an award for the Core Values at the international final of the FIRST LEGO League!!

We came fourth overall, with the team being recognised for their Inclusivity, Fun, Teamwork, Discovery, Impact and Innovation.

This isn’t just an award for their robot, or their food waste project or even their presentations. This is an award for THEM. These children who have put in so many months of hard work, who have faced and overcome huge challenges, who have bonded through shared laughter and friendship and who have represented Great Britain at the highest level these last few days.

This is an award for the Penpol Pumpkins 🎃

Well, that was intense!

The Lightning Round is a special event that only happens at large events like this, where teams are paired up together to complete the challenge in a slightly different way. For this competition the two teams were assigned at lunchtime and had only a few minutes to work together on planning a whole new mission strategy…

90 seconds, two tables, one scoresheet.

The aim is to work together to score as many points as possible between the two teams, who are in turn playing in a knockout match against another team. This requires a lot of planning, adjusting missions and running orders and working well under a huge amount of pressure (nobody wants to let the other team down!)

We were thrilled to be partnered with Team Bob from Greece, who are from FutureLab Robotics Academy. Working together the team “Bobkins!” Managed to make it through not just the first and second rounds, but also the quarter final, semi final and got right through to the final itself!!

After an excellent final run from both teams they came in third place with a remarkable combined score of 335! Well done Team Bobkins!!

After a bumpy start yesterday, the Robot Games team came back fighting today and managed to greatly improve on their scores. In the first two matches they achieved 215 points each and in the final match they reached 195. We didn’t get to our ‘perfect’ score of 345, but given the pressure and unusual conditions in the arena they did really well!

There’s one more game to come later – the Lightning Alliance round, where teams are paired up and have to work together. Check back later for more on that!