I'm Sam Colabella and I particiapated in the First Lego League championship in Georgia. My exeriance in Georgia was interesting. It was cool to see so many people from different countries. All in all it was pretty fun.

Home

We arrived home at 11:55 PM after 16 hours in the car. I just had a few thoughts. Remember that this blog is not over. I am encouraging the kids to reflect on their experiences over the next few days and to create blog entries and upload more pictures.

One of the main core values of FIRST Lego League is as follows :

"What we learn is more important than what we win".

I have found this to be true. Main things I learned in Atlanta:

1) It is possible to fit 12 people in a Nissan Murano

2) Yes, you can eat Nachos with a fork

3) The New Zealand accent beats England or Australia any day

Highlights for me personally (as the coach):

1) Seeing my team huddle up for prayer of their own accord with Peter in the lead

2) Observing exemplary behavior from my team members throughout the competition. I never heard Lauren complain once about being the only girl on our team.

3) Seeing Sam smile at me (not just smile, but actually smile at me)

4) Trusting in Luke to handle all programming/robot problems without any help and seeing him succeed

5) Noticing Jon looking after the little New Zealanders (sure that they were lost in the park)

6) Hearing Jacob's voice loud and clear answering the judge's questions through the curtain (We had asked them to speak up)

Leaving Atlanta

We are heading out the door in a few minutes to make the long drive home. Many teams are stranded here due to the volcanic ash situation including two teams from England, Norway, Spain, the Netherlands (2 teams), Germany (the robot winner). There are probably others as well.

The German team won the robot design and robot performance award...that famous German engineering!! The overall winner was a team from NH that researched and created a device to detect whether someone driving a car was texting. Great job by all the teams and what a once-in-a-lifetime experience for all of us!!

Cool dudes

Finale Party

Our Final Day in Atlanta

We were hopeful going into the awards ceremony but unfortunately we did not receive an award. We had a wonderful time here and got to experience downtown Atlanta. Last night we visited the Georgia Aquarium (the world's largest) and this morning we visited the Coca-Cola factory. Both are within walking distance from our hotel and the Georgia Dome.

We are on our way out the door to Centennial Olympic Park for our Finale Party. The whole park is open only for us so it should be cool. There is a rock climbing wall and giant inflatables plus FREE FOOD!!! I will post later if I have time.

On the big screen

Our Pals from New Zealand

Robot Drivers

Team Colombia

Celebration after a 390 run!

Bartek boys!!

Competition Day 2

The kids are exhausted but we have made it through the "competition" part of our trip. We had a high score today of 390. The high score possible is 400 points so we are thrilled with this effort. The kids are a bit disappointed and would love to have achieved a 400 but a 390 is the highest score in the history of The Atoms Family so we are proud of that. There were three teams that had perfect 400's for all three rounds!! Wow!!

We had to close down our pit area today and pack up our robot. It was sad for all of us. We met lots of teams. It was fun to meet kids from New Zealand .. this team had 32 hours of travel time and were so friendly. The accent is awesome. We also met a team from a Christian School in South Korea. They wrote our name in Korean for us.

We have no idea how the awards will turn out. The robot score is only one small part of the overall score so it is hard to say what will happen tomorrow. The awards ceremony is at 1:00 PM. After that, there is a Finale Party in Centennial Olympic Park. We are excited and can't wait for tomorrow!

Team Prayer

Unofficial team motto

Our robot drivers

On the Jumbotron!! So Cool!

The Atoms Family on the Jumobtron in the Dome

Official Score Board

Our near perfect run of 390 (out of 400)

Our team on deck in the Dome

Our PIT

Jon and Luke

Our PIT Area

Day 1

We have zero downtime here in Atlanta and no wifi in the pit area so we have been slow in uploading pictures. To view the pictures just keep scrolling down the page and view older posts.

Today was our day of judging and two robot practice rounds. The judging went very well according to the kids, but it is hard to tell since we (the parents and coaches) don't get to see anything and we don't have any way of comparing our kids to what other teams are doing. Our kids were very positive but we did not get a "call back". I'm not sure what that means. We don't know if that is good or bad.

Our first robot practice round was a disaster due to different lighting in the Georgia Dome than we expected but Luke changed the programs and we were much more successful in the 2nd round. Tomorrow there will be three robot rounds and our highest score will count.

Best Costume Award - Team Norway

The Atoms Family

Georgia Dome!!!!!

Our team at the table- Practice Round

Jake and Lauren with a Canadian team

Team South Korea

Team Haiti - Lego Rebuilders is their name

Team England

One of the cool robots we saw today

We are here!!

We have all arrived in Atlanta safely and I personally have already met teams from New Zealand, Texas, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Germany, England, France, Colombia, and Alaska. (Just to name a few)

We start tomorrow morning with 2 robot practice rounds in the Georgia Dome and then our research project will be presented to the judges. We are overwhelmed! The place is huge!!! There are 84 First Lego League teams from 41 countries!! We brought 200 buttons along to hand out with our team logo and they are all gone.....

Our final robot mission

NJ TRANSIT MEETING

Meeting with NJ Transit

Today we met with NJ Transit in Jersey City, NJ to demonstrate our research project dealing with train safety. They were impressed and we were encouraged by their enthusiasm. They gave our team a boost of confidence that will propel us forward as we get ready to leave for the World Festival. We also learned so much regarding train safety and how things are done in the NJ Transit system. We want to thank the group of men that we met with for giving of their time today.

Today we participated in Morris County 4-H Sciencesational Day! It was a great experience for our team and for the 35 kids (grades 4-6) that took part in our workshops. We hoped to give them an exposure to Lego Robotics and maybe even help to start some future FLL teams. We think we have done just that as many parents asked how to start a team. The Morris County 4-H has also offered to make a donation to our trip to Atlanta. This is great news as our fundraising efforts have not gone as well as we expected.

4-H Science and Technology Day

We are less than three weeks away from our trip to Atlanta, Georgia for the First Lego League World Festival. We are starting to get excited, nervous, stressed out and even a bit panicked.

Our robot is ready with a possible score of 400 (if all goes well).

We will be spending this Saturday at County College of Morris for the 4-H Technology Day. We will be giving three workshops to about 25 kids, hoping to get them excited about FLL and robotics.

Please keep checking back for updates when we get to Atlanta, April 14-18