The trick of this contest experience for the kids - in addition to adding video editing software and an introduction to the Facebook contest tool to their learning resume this year - is that they need people to vote for their video.
The kids are the only Maine team and are up against teams from all over the country - Maryland, Georgia, Mississippi, Wyoming, Colorado, Oregon, New Jersey and a few other states.
So I'm making this post as a shameless plug to ask all of my Raising Maine peeps to vote for these Maine kids.
The prize is $1,000 (or $500 for second and third place) and the kids plan to buy more robotics equipment to expand their building capabilities for next year if they place in this contest.
Here is the link to the Facebook contest page:
http://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/102285/voteable_entries/18258241?ogn=facebook
You need to be logged in to a Facebook account to vote. The contest require you to "allow" the contest app to vote, which is the app's way of ensuring only one vote per person/profile during the contest.
And in case you needed another reason to vote for the kids, I'll give you a brief pictorial of their field trips this year (in addition to bi-monthly building/programming meetings). There was a lot of learning they couldn't fit in to their under-3-minute contest video submission.
The kids visited the paper mover robots at the Press Herald's printing plant. These robots move the giant rolls of paper to the printing presses.
A visit to Eastern Maine Medical Center to learn about the DaVinci surgery robots was a hands-on experience.
A trip to Portland Arts and Technology High School (PATHS) to learn about that school's Robotics and Precision Machining program. The leaders wanted the kids to know about their options to learn about the next level of robotics building and programming (PATHS uses VEX) and receive high school credit for their work. Thanks Mr. Bolduc!
The kids agreed to host a table at the Engineering Expo at USM last month to expose other kids to the possibilities of learning robotics through 4H. The kids built and programmed robots to do specific tasks as demos for the expo. The prep work for this event was similar to the state "track meets" robotics clubs typically do. It was a ton of work for the kids and their leaders (I am not a leader in this club, Fino takes L. to meetings) that took weeks to organize. But the kids got all their robots built and working properly and had a ton of fun at the event (at their own table as well as exploring all the other hands-on engineering activities).
I'm super proud of the kids in this club... and the leaders that organize it (thank you Alice and Nicole)!
So if you can find your way to Facebook, throw in your vote for their video. The kids would really appreciate it.
Thank you!
Vote here: http://apps.facebook.com/contestshq/contests/102285/voteable_entries/18258241?ogn=facebook
You need to be logged in to a Facebook account to vote. The contest require you to "allow" the contest app to vote, which is the app's way of ensuring only one vote per person/profile during the contest.
If you don't have a Facebook account and want to see their video, here it is.
And please, forgive me for this shameless post. I'm just trying to help the kids get the word out about the contest.
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