A Day at Tinkerfest 2020
Getting Started
October 24, 2020, our team woke up at the crack of dawn. We had to leave the school by 7:00 am to arrive at Tinkerfest in Little Rock hosted by the Museum of Discovery. It was my first year ever going to one of these events, considering I was a new member of Breakaway. I had done LEGO Club in the past, but nothing had compared to the draining, yet extremely fun, activities Breakaway had planned that day. Our team had arrived early and set up our stations, full of LEGO Robots and ready-to-be-built Snap Circuits. It was dreadfully cold, but with our hearts full of passion and Liz, our Outreach Chair, full of coffee, we were ready to get started.
The Joy of Children
The children were overjoyed with the overwhelming amount of robots and possibilities for their imaginations to run wild. We set them up with a base robot, an iPad, a Lego set, and a small push towards greatness. The base robots which we had set up for them consisted of a square-electronic contraption full of code that Bluetooth connected to the iPads which controlled the robot. It had tons of little holes to put LEGO parts in and plenty of room for creativity. The older kids loved the complicated builds and spent many minutes dedicating themselves and their time to their robot, only to smash it a few seconds later. The younger ones loved smashing our previously built robots and our base robots.
We also had a few soon-to-be STEM and robotics fans, both boys and girls. They were well-versed in engineering and seemed to have better building knowledge than myself. There were a few younger children who spent entire half-hours just building their dream robot. We had grabby-arms, ramps, spinning wheels, moving parts, “spikes,” and even some “vampire fangs” on one. These children put their hearts and imaginations into their robots. We also had plenty of young-individuals who had their faces light up when they saw the robots we built. It was wonderful to be able to provide some meaningful family time that is both enjoyable for the parents and for the children.
Incredible Speed
The kids were incredible at driving their Lego robots. We might have even witnessed the next star in Fast and Furious. Their maneuvers were so advanced, even Coach Jones couldn’t help but drive off the “sumo mat.” The kids were strategic, being able to have a base robot and still dominate with their breath-taking mobility and unnatural swiftness. There was little downtime, and there was always a kid ready to battle another kid in the sumo pit or battle the Breakaway team members (who showed no mercy). We sometimes had all-out brawls that lasted a few minutes, and when you thought one person was going to win, the tables completely turned. There were also others that had gone on for so long due to a robot not being able to push another robot on. We had many “Scar and Mufasa” moments where one robot was dangling off and the opponent showed no mercy and pushed them off at full speed (only to immediately fall of themselves).
Snap Circuits
In the circuits section, the students built complicated electrical patterns with only a power supply and the kit full of “tinkerable” items. Our circuits encouraged out-of-the-box thinking, electrical engineering, and overall technological experience. The circuits also promoted problem-solving skills. It was crazy seeing the gears spin as they were trying to connect two dead AA batteries to circuits and wondering why it didn’t work only to figure it out themselves. We had frequent “dance periods” as the kids would dance to the music provided while working away on their circuits. We built amazing circuits that functioned as an easy way to sing Happy Birthday using our music boxes, fans that spun little propellers in the air, and lights to show the conduction of electricity. We had tons of fun and tons of kids to provide the fun to.
A Day of Fun
With all the fun resources we provided and the constant work we had to do, it was almost as if the cold had vanished. It was so sad to pack up after the extreme enjoyment the rest of the team and I had gained from a simple activity such as spending a few hours crashing robots into each other. I wished we had a bigger amount of resources to provide to all of the children there and many more children to provide those resources to. It was a great experience. We had lots of fun, and we made lots of memories, smiles, and robots.
Thank you, sponsors!!!
