Wow, what a day!
Our final day in Boston featured a visit to Boston Science Museum, a tour of the land and sea on a Duck Boat and a lot of travelling to get back home to Penpol School. Check out our final video…
We’ve made it safely back to Penpol School! I’m sure in the days to come the children will be eager to share some reflections and memories of the last week, but for now we all need a good nights sleep…
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…
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.
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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!
Today is the final day of the WPI LEGO Final and it’s the Robot Games engineers who will be taking center stage today as they play their final three matches. However, they certainly won’t be alone as the rest of the Pumpkins will be cheering on their every move from the side of the arena.
We discovered yesterday that the Robot Games matches here are much more intense than those back in the UK, but we’re all in fighting spirits today and, most importantly, we’re ready to have a lot of fun!
If you’d like to follow the Pumpkins today the event will be live streamed through Twitch here: https://www.twitch.tv/wpirobotics
Here are some key timings of when the Pumpkins will be in action on Sunday 11th June:
Robot Games Round 3: 🇺🇸 10.06am / 🇬🇧 3.06pm
Robot Games Round 4: 🇺🇸 11.10am / 🇬🇧 4.10pm
Robot Games Round 5: 🇺🇸 11.42am / 🇬🇧 4.42pm
Closing Ceremony: 🇺🇸 3pm / 🇬🇧 8pm
Today we had ups and we had downs, new friends and new challenges. We wowed the presentation judges and laughed with teams from around the world at the team party carnival. Here’s our video diary of the day, as told by the Pumpkins.
Tonight all the teams taking part were treated to a carnival party at WPI to celebrate their achievements and to make new friends.
The Pumpkins enjoyed the rides and attractions, the food and drinks and socialised with children from all around the world. Everywhere you looked there were little clusters of orange jumpers chatting to other children with plenty of laughing and giggling going on.
Tomorrow we’ve got three more rounds of the Robot Games to look forward to, as well as the Lightning Round where we’ll be paired up with another team to face the Robot Games together! Stay tuned!
