We didn't participate in the parade, but did set up a booth for the after-parade activities. We had our robot, buttons, and recruitment materials at our table.

When they lit the bonfire, our team members and a few other students had fun tossing around one of our "cube" game pieces from last season.

We were invited to display our robot at the Pathfinder Symposium for the second year. This year it was held in the East Hall of the VBC in Huntsville. We loaded up our robot and driving supplies, and 10 students for the event this year. 

The students engaged with the symposium attendees and demonstrated the robot's capabilities.

In addition to demonstrating our robots, all the students had the opportunity to visit all the exhibits. Some took the opportunity to try a flight simulator, others were able to build model airplanes. 

The students also presented our robot in an auditorium in front of all of the symposium attendees, and many of the exhibitors. 

Today we participated in the Festival portion of the Celebrating Education Parade & Festival. Several students came out to school on Saturday to help out. 

We set up on the other side of the track/football field as we have in the past. The concrete pads we used to use for driving the robot now have bleachers on them. We had to find a spot near electricity so we could use the wifi to talk to our robot. We spread out a tarp so as not to destroy the robot wheels on the asphalt.

Several people stopped by to either drive the robot or watch. We also had buttons, bookmarks, keychains, and candy to hand out.

We did have to compete with the free fried fish sandwich line, which attracted almost everyone at the Festival.

As lunch was wrapping up we decided to pack up and take everything back inside. Our robot wasn't cooperating (as sometimes happens) and instead of troubleshooting in the heat we decided to leave. Most of the other booths had also left by that time anyway. We did have a good time, and awed many of the attendees with our robot. 

Several students spent the day at Rolling Hills Elementary School to help with Field Day. They assisted the younger students with activities such as bouncy houses and slides. Everyone had a fun day, and the robotics team members enjoyed working with the younger students.

Most of the team was at another activity, but that didn't stop us from giving a tour of the Robotics Lab, College Academy, and Advanced Manufacturing facility at Jemison today. This group hosted by Global Ties Alabama is from Oman, and they enjoyed seeing all that Jemison has to offer. A team member was able to break away from class long enough to give the College Academy/Robotics Lab part of the tour, and he explained several things about our robot.

Mr. Whaley, the Advanced Manufacturing teacher continued the tour with his CAD room, 3D Printing room, Carbon Fiber room, and the Welding building. The group was impressed that a high school had those types of facilities that students can use, and even earn certifications in class.

​Thursday afternoon we were honored to have Kristiyan Mihaylov, co-founder of Professional Association of Robotics and Automation (PARA), a robotics incubator program. He is from Bulgaria and in addition to touring Chicago and other parts of the U.S., he attended the Rotary Club of Greater Huntsville meeting on Wednesday, and on Thursday visited Jemison and our robotics lab. 

​PARA fosters partnerships that connect robotic and automation companies and best practices for the industry throughout Bulgaria. Kris is a Young Transatlantic Innovation Leaders Initiative (YTILI) Fellow who came to the U.S. through Global Ties Alabama.

He visited the Rocket City Regional last weekend, and wanted to learn more about our team. The students spent a while talking to him and learning what Incubator programs are. The team explained and demonstrated the robot to him, and at Wednesday's Rotary Lunch he got to drive the bot for a while.

We attended our annual lunch visit to the Rotary Club of Greater Huntsville, our primary sponsor. Twelve students attended, and sat at tables with Rotarians during lunch to talk robotics.

Prior to the program the team members presented a signed shirt and Baby Jag to Stanley Construction, one of our sponsors, and another Baby Jag to the Rotary Club.

We then viewed the presentation from the Huntsville Parks and Recreation department.

When the meeting ended we demonstrated our robot out in the atrium and several Rotarians participated by "catching" the cubes the robot presented.

We had a great time thanking our sponsor and getting to meet the Rotarians who help make our team possible!

We were invited to attend a monthly luncheon held by the church that a few of our mentors attend. The congregation wanted to see the robotics team that they have been hearing about for the last 6 years! So we loaded up our practice bot, driver console, and whatever other materials we needed. We brought our two Team Co-Captains and our Logistics Lead since we couldn't bring the whole team.

The students explained the purpose of the practice bot and how it works. They demonstrated the way it moves around with the mecanum wheels. The church members had questions for the students about the competitions we go to and what we do all year. They were impressed with the students and the church pastor even drove the robot!

The congregation very graciously donated funds to our team to allow us to purchase items like a team flag and mascot costume! Thank you so very much, St. Mark's!

Our team was honored today by a visit from an international group of women in STEM. The Global Ties Alabama Hidden No More project brought women from Argentina, Australia, Bangladesh, Cook Islands, Italy, North Macedonia, & the United Kingdom to Huntsville for three days of celebrating Women in STEM. 

The students started by describing themselves and what they want to do after high school. The international visitors asked questions and gave insight into their worlds. For instance, students in Italy start school days around 8:30 AM just like we do, but they dismiss around 2:30 or 3 PM, much earlier than we do. They don't have the variety of after school programs like us. 

After talking about themselves for a bit the team members talked about the projects we have been working on (metal storage stand, battery cart, recruitment efforts) and our robots. They gave a driving demonstration and even let some of the women try their hand at the joystick. The team members explained the control system of the robot, and what they plan on doing with pneumatics. 

After spending about an hour with the visitors, they left the robotics lab to go visit the Advanced Manufacturing section of the school.