Technical Writing Meeting

The technical writing meeting was held at the library.

During this meeting, we learned how to write an expository presentation, which is the way you write how to do something.

The team picked topics out of magazines that Mrs. McDonald provided.

We divided into three teams, and the topics we chose were how to catch a fish, how to catch a shark, and how to make a chocolate pizza pie. I'm hoping that we get a recipe for that last one!

Other ways of writing a presentation are descriptive, analytical and narrative, but we only focused on how to do something which is known as expository writing.

When the time was up, each group gave a presentation for the other students. One student used notecards and presented the topic from the notecards, another student drew a poster board for that topic, and the rest of the students demonstrated while the presenter spoke. We need a little work on how to demonstrate things!

After all were done, we discussed what could have been done differently in our presentations. I think we need some work to present our topics at the Robotics competition!

Get To Know You Meeting

This meeting was mainly a meeting so the students could get to know one another. Attendance was light, compared to last year's meetings, which was disappointing to the members involved with last year's charter group.

The two charter members introduced themselves and showed the remains of last year's robot. Our coach Mrs. Abbott discussed Robotics and our assistant coach Mrs. McDonald discussed BEST activities.

Mrs. Abbott facilitated a few games, including one where the kids went around and told something about themselves based on how many Skittles they took out of a bag. Some of them had to come up with quite a few descriptions! Afterwards, they ate all the
Skittles. They also played a few other games.

Mr. Abbott discussed building, tools, and safety at the conclusion of the meeting.

After the meeting, all the kids went outside and threw water balloons at each other, and squirted each other with water guns. On a few occasions, the parents got a little wet, but not much. Some of the kids soaked each other with buckets. All in all, it was a good meeting, with more new faces than old ones.

New MaTH-Robotics Year Starts

The Magnolia and Tomball Homeschoolers (MaTH) Robotics team is looking for new members. We are looking for engineers, artists, scientists, photographers, writers and cheerleaders. If you enjoy a good challenge and have an interest in actual application of engineering, science, and technology in creative and inventive ways ...

This opportunity is designed for students who want to further the appreciation for science and technology, in a fun and enriching social environment. The MaTH Robotics team is open to boys and girls ages 10 to 17.

We have a tentative schedule for the summer, which includes a visit from a member of the Apollo 13 Mission Ops Crew, to prepare the students before Robotics competition begins. If you are interested in attending these meetings, please email info@math-robotics.org or visit http://www.math-robotics.org/.