SUCCESS!

On November 5 the Molokai Forget Me Nots, along with 6 other Molokai Robotics teams braved the rough seas and ventured over to Maui for the Maui Regional Robotics Tournament! :)

We were a bit crunched for time and had some robot issues on that Thursday (our robot BROKE!!) but we made it to the Molokai Wharf by 4:45am on Friday! The ride to Maui was less than perfect- 98% of us were completely drenched from head to toe- including all of our bags and supplies!! Not to mention the majority of the boat experienced sea sickness in one way or another! Words like "horrible", "terrible", "ridiculous" "worst experience ever" and many more were all spoken when asked to describe the trip over, but that was all a distant memory once we got settled in Maui!

We started the day off with a trip over to Maui Economic Development Board (MEDB) who have been phenomenal supporters of the Molokai Robotics program and were able to get more information on their program which was very interesting. Then we had a few engineers from Good Fellows come and explain how they use STEM in their daily jobs. The kids had a blast, and hands down the best part was the surveying and hiding quarters from the other teams. We also had a guest speaker, Jerry, from Maui Makers come and show us a CAD printer which was AMAZING! At the end of the day we had a few really inspired kids on our hands, which was great!

Saturday was the Robotics competition and we were all pumped! We showed up to Maui High School gym all decked out in our costumes and gracious professionalism pouring out of our ears! We were all so happy and grateful to be there everyone kept smiling all day! The teams did awesome! Only 2 of the teams had members on it that had ever participated before, so that meant 5 of the teams were all brand new with new coaches!!! The teams did great in the presentation portion of the competition, but it was all closed door judging (not even the coaches could go in!) so I don't have any scores for that yet. The robotics portion of the competition was in the gym and open to observers! The robots earn points for every mission they complete so during the competition the judges kept the scores posted. In the end the Molokai Forget Me Nots tied for 4th place with the Molokai Gleeks. Not too far behind them were the Kaunakakai Pharmers and the Molokai Walkie Talkies. Rounding out the rest of the pack were the two teams for Kualapu'u and The Manae Band aids who all did excellent as well!

When the awards portion of the event started I reminded my team that it didn't matter if we did not receive an award but that we should be proud of our accomplishments and the work we had done! They were soooo excited! As they called the teams who received awards our team sat, we were not one of the teams who received awards. Two Molokai teams did receive awards though- One was the Molokai Gleeks and the other the Kaunakakai Pharmers!! As they announced the top 7 teams who were advancing to state they again did not call our name. :( We were a little bummed, but they did actually announce our team as an alternate to the State Tournament, so if one team could not participate we would have the opportunity to. So we were pretty excited about that! First year, first competition, and we still placed as alternates!!

So we will take a short break from robotics and practice just in case they do need us to take someones place! :)

Congrats to the Forget Me Nots and the other Molokai robotics teams! ;)