January 4th marked the beginning of build season! The LigerBots drove to New Hampshire to see the game reveal in person. It was incredible to be there in person: we were the largest team at the principal site of 178 kickoffs all over the world. 

We had been anxiously waiting for the kickoff of the 2020 game, the Star-Wars themed Infinite Recharge. During the kickoff, FIRST released the unencrypted game manual, so on the drive home we looked over the rules and begin creating plans for our robot.

This game is very exciting: it’s played three robots versus three robots who compete to score the most points by the end of a three-minute match. Teams score points by throwing small balls into a receptor on the other side of the field, spinning a lazy Susan device, and, at the end of the game, climbing and hanging on a pole! 

The next day, the team broke up into design groups. On Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, the groups deliberated and designed, creating a number of designs and mechanisms for the team to consider. 

On Tuesday, a group of LigerBots attended the Just Think expo at Newton North. We demonstrated our robot to students and parents throughout Newton. Thanks to Just Think for having us– it was such an educational and positive night! 

Later on Tuesday, we reconvened in order for the design groups to display their designs. We used a method called “Six Hats,” introduced to us by a mentor, where we laid out all the designs and commented on them using six different modes of thinking. For example, the “red hat” represented your emotional response, while the “yellow hat” was positive thinking.  

After build leader deliberation on Wednesday, we switched over into our build groups on Thursday. Each group was assigned a different prototype to build. Once they are finished, we will test the prototypes to determine which design for each mechanism works best. 

Things are ramping up as build season begins, but there is still a long way to go before our first competition. We hope you’ll be with us all the way!

On Saturday, December 14, the LigerBots hosted the Eastern Massachusetts regional championship for FLL! There were 48 FLL teams, (9-14 year olds), 10 FLL Jr. Teams (5-8 year olds), as well as 91 girl scouts (ranging in age from 5-12 years old) attending either to compete or interact with our STEAM Expo. 

We were also excited to  be visited by local city councilor elect, Julia Malakie, and candidates for US Congress, Jesse Mermell , and Ihssane Leckey.

 FLL is FIRST’s lego robotics competition where teams are composed of elementary and middle school students. The students attempt to design and build the most efficient robot possible to play the game. Every year, FIRST releases a new game for the robots to compete in. This years game was city themed, to teach kids about the future of urban planning. 

This championship ended with the Waring School Brickwolves from Beverly taking first place. Not only did they win, but they achieved a world record with a score of 600 in the game! This amazing score earned the team a spot in the FLL world championship which will take place in Detroit in April 2020. 

 In addition to the robotics competition, there was also a STEAM expo where the LigerBots and STEAM organizations from the area set up tables with interactive activities. Ninety-one Girl Scouts as well as FLL team members and their families biked an electricity-generating bike from Students for a Greener World, made solar oven s’mores, experimented with slime, engineered with the Society of Women Engineers Boston, and so much more! 

On Saturday November 23rd, the LigerBots hosted First Lego League Eastern Massachusetts Qualifying Tournament at Newton North High School. Thirty-four teams, including eight teams from Newton, attended the tournament.

The teams were judged on their independent themed projects over the course of the day in addition to their robot’s performance. The theme this year was “City Shaper.” 

Based on their combined robot and independent projects, eleven of the teams were awarded a “golden ticket” to advance to the state championship in December. 

The LigerBots also hosted a STEAM Fair at the competition which gave young students the chance to see and interact with LigerBots members through hands-on STEAM activities. Participants made slime as a scientific experiment, designed the best paper airplane, and drove our 2016 robot, among other activities!  

This event was a cool full circle, because some of our own members of Ligerbots had participated in FLL in their youth. The student director of FLL, Matthew, was on a team. In addition, former Day Dragon members who are now part of the LigerBots were happy to see their FLL team continue and do well! 

Many motivated volunteers, ranging from past FLL participants, mentors, and parents, helped immensely with the organization of this event. Whether they judged, refereed, or sold concessions, we thank all of our volunteers! 

The Eastern Massachusetts FLL Championship will be hosted at Newton North on the 14th of December, featuring the return of fourty-eight teams and a bigger, more exciting STEAM Expo that is open to the public! Be sure to stop by between 9 AM and 2 PM. In addition, we’ll be hosting the Girl Scouts in a STEAM Patch Workshop at our STEAM Expo from 10 AM to 12 PM. 

On Saturday, October 26th, members of the Ligerbots team attended the Think Big Expo at Newton Free Library. Throughout the event, guests from STEM-related industries were invited to mix and mingle in an ice-cream filled event. Members from Ligerbots set up a booth and talked to different experts engineers from STEM-related industries. 

On Friday, November 2nd, the city of Newton held a pumpkin smashing event to promote composting in the City of Newton and neighboring cities. Members from the Ligerbots attended and set up our Pumpkin Smasher contraption and the public was encouraged to bring their leftover pumpkins from the Halloween holiday season to be smashed.

 With 750 attendees, ranging in all ages, Ligerbots ran binary beads, the Pumpkin smashing event, and spoke to the adults in attendance. Newton City Council volunteers Eric Braman and Waneta Trabert reached out to us afterwards and shared their thanks for our involvement in the event.

On Tuesday, November 12th, a Newton community event was held at Newton South High School where Newton residents shared their stories of success and personal development, called “Newton Inspires.” The LigerBots helped adults navigate around the school to get to different classrooms.

This gave community members an excellent opportunity to talk with team members about the LigerBots and what we do for the community.

On Friday, November 15th, Newton North hosted its annual Girls in STEM day, with presentations by guest speakers of field experts and alumni given in Assemblies throughout the day.  Since the event occurred during school, 11 LigerBots tag teamed in presenting our robot and staffing a booth during lunch with other organizations as an example of and in support of women’s success in STEM. It was an inspiring day and served as a reminder of the struggles and triumphs of women in STEM. 

The LigerBots hit the ground running at the beginning of the school year as we prepare for the competition season, which starts in January. Our team members have been attending many outreach events, teaching skills to rookies, and preparing for the FLL competition we host in November and December.  

On September 22nd, we attended the Newtonville Village Day. LigerBots set up a booth along Walnut St, and we had our “Slime as a Scientific Experiment” activity, mini robots made out of toothbrush heads, and our 2016 robot. The kids really enjoyed making a mess with the slime and learning about the properties of glue! 

We also attended Beantown Blitz, an offseason competition hosted by Revere High School in Revere, Massachusetts, on October 19th. The event was perfect for rookies to gain experience driving the robot and experience a live competition. 

For instance, in advance of the competition, we held a scouting competition where the rookies scouted some matches to see who was the most accurate at capturing robot performance. “Scouting” is when members of the team record the scores of each team that is playing in order to collect data on teams. The top 5 winners of the competition got cream puffs and it was great training for Beantown Blitz!  

On Sunday, October 20th, a group of students, our robot, and our tent went to the Green Expo that was held inside the Newton Centre Harvest Fair. We encouraged kids to drive our robot and catch the ball it threw. We also had a hands-on activity of making a solar oven out of cardboard boxes, tinfoil, and plastic wrap, in which the kids could make s’mores! It was a great example of the intersection of sustainability, technology, and hands-on engineering. 

We also held our annual Parents’ Night in October. The parents got to learn all about our team and how they could help. 

The FTC team from the East Boston Excel Charter school came to our meeting in order to learn more about coding and software. Our coding lead was able to help them out! Last year, we helped them fundraise by supporting a Student Artists for Science event. 

We have also been busy maximizing our robotics skills and teaching rookies. The electrical team, for example, has been hard at work preparing training documents to help rookies learn information quickly. They have also been working on their pneumatics test bench to test pneumatic pistons. 

The strategy council is working on teaching and explaining scouting to the rookies. Scouting is filling out a chart of all the actions a robot did during a match. This data is then converted to a spreadsheet for data analysis. The council had the rookies practice scouting at Beantown Blitz. 

This Saturday, we will be at the Think Big Expo at the Newton Free Library.  Think Big is an event where middle and high schoolers talk with STEM experts. We are excited to be there and promote STEM careers in our community. Hope to see you all there!