Road to WAFFLE BLOG

The aftermath - Daniel Gives Back!

• Upon returning home, we counted up all the DGB "Deeds for Daniel" and found that we collected 577 acts of kindness since state!  Thank you for participating!!

News from the Competition

• Day 3: BUILD ran 4 scored robot runs on this day.  We got to the practice tables bright and early and were able to achieve a high score of 350.  It wasn't the 420 they were striving for, but on any given robot day the robot ghost comes out to play.  I was most proud of the team's persistence, managing what they could control between matches, and learning how to respectfully advocate for themselves at the robot table.  After robot we got a break for a few hours and played with a giant beach ball in the courtyard.  Well deserved.  We then went to awards and....came home with our very own WAFFLE trophy!  BUILD was fortunate to be recognized as a finalist in the Innovation Project category - hooray!!!

• Day 2: BUILD started off the day by fixing robot runs 1 and 5 and continued on with presentation practice.  We got to see more of the campus when walking to judging - since it was raining, we put the ponchos from Niagara Falls over the project.  :)  Kids did a great job in judging, came back for lunch, and then ran their first Robot practice run!  Good news is that our fixes on runs 1,5 were successful!  Bad news was that our robot got stuck on one of the mission models but runner Levi got that robot back up and working like a champ.  We capped off the day at the sponsored team party!

• Day 1:  Today we set up the pit, prepped our presentation, and practiced our robot runs!  We also met some of the 28 international teams (108 total competing) while setting up our pit!  We taught them how to play cornhole.  :)  We also troubleshot our robot, went to the opening ceremony (featuring Dean Kamen), and came back to the hotel to play pool football with some of the other FIRST teams!

Journey to WAFFLE!

• Day Competition Minus 1: We had more arrivals, a pool party, put the project back together, and had fancy aquatic themed desserts!

• Day Competition Minus 2: 50% of the team has travelled across the country and all of our pit and robot gear arrived in one piece on the East Costa!  Whether its still functional or not we don't know - that is a problem for tomorrow.  This year every family is taking a different path to competition.  We've seen all sorts of new things like the  Washington Monument, Niagara Falls, the Atlantic Ocean, and Salem, MA.  By the time we get home, we will have visited 2 countries and about a dozen states!  More adventures tomorRow when the rest of our teammates arrive!

May & early June, 2025:  

• Drill, drill, drill, test test test, create, create create!  This has been our team motto over the last month!  We have been timing our runs, practicing our presentations, and creating our PIT decor!   

• This past week the team found out that our table had to drop to 24 inches off the ground so it would match the WAFFLE table height.  They worked through adjustments and accomplished their practice-high scores of 415 and 420 right before the competition!  We also learned there won't be a table in the judging room, so we quickly adjusted to a "rolling cart" configuration for our very large project.  We think this solution is even better because now we can carry a bunch of stuff in on the cart!  :)

• GETTING CLOSE!!!!