Done!

First of all, this was our impression of Altoona, PA!!!  It was in the middle of no-where!!

This is the assembly at the end of the day. Our team tied for 6th place out of 15 teams in our division. We should have had fourth place in our Long Term Problem as video proved we completed two of the tasks correctly that they gave us zero points for, but they wouldn't change our score. The judges helped the other teams during their peformances also, but our team got no help. Basically it was a very frustrating experience. We just wanted to be treated fairly in the judging process and for some reason, we weren't. Another school from our district decided to pull out because of scoring problems and they were more frustrated than us. It is too bad as the kids shouldn't be discouraged from participating in events like this. I don't think I'll do it again. I loved working with the kids all year and they did an excellent job at their performance, no matter what the judges thought. (Though the judges couldn't even remember why we got "0"'s!!!! ?!).  I am very proud of everyone! And we had a lot of fun with the parents this weekend too. I think we made some pretty good friends so in that sense, it was worth it!

This is a funny sign we saw at the restaurant we ate at for lunch!! I wanted to submit it to the Tonight Show!
Here's a photo of the judges questioning the team on the construction of their vehicle. The kids came up with the engineering from scratch!!! The other teams used premade parts which I was surprised by. We should have had higher points for our vehicle.

This photo actually shows that Foster stopped the vehicle within the starting area box. They said we didn't and we lost all 5 points for this!!! I don't know how much more proof you need than this picture??

 
They are judging the props. The kids made this treasure box out of cardboard. It caught the catapulted tennis ball which was really cool!!! They gave us zero points for that whole great thing too, saying it wasn't behind a certain line. It was... we had a whole video of it and if it hadn't been, it wouldn't have worked as the catapult requires precise placement. These judges really were biased or something!!!!

 
Here's a couple of nervous coaches!!! Breathe girls, breathe!!!!

Here's the kids waiting to be called to go into another room alone, to do their Spontaneous question. It ended up being a hands-on problem to solve. They got a top score in their verbal problem at Regionals. This one ended up being very difficult and they didn't do as well as they would have liked. But then, all the teams thought it was difficult, so they should be proud of themselves for the points they did win!

Here's my team!! What a great bunch of kids!!! Altoona is close to Penn State University in State College, PA. We got to see the campus and eat at the Creamery. We did have fun Friday night going out to dinner together and hanging out! We just have to keep Stephanie off of the sidewalks with her car!!!! If you go to Penn State and see tire tracks on the sidewalk, you know we were there!!! (It was dark and we couldn't see where we were going! ;)

Now to finally rest! Hope it was a good weekend for you!