Girls & Robotics

My son participated in the  2011 VEX Robotics World Championship this weekend in Orlando. It was his schools first ever robotics club and although they didn’t win the overall competition, they did receive an award for building and programming their robot in an amazingly short period – only 5 days compared to the months spent by other teams. It was fun and inspirational for them and they are already planning their next competitive event.

Vex Robotics Event 2011

This was an awesome experience for the kids – not only were they learning to work together as a team but also meeting kids from all over the country and internationally who shared the same interests in technology. I was struck by how fun &  friendly  the atmosphere was – competitive teams who were still willing to share equipment and help out each other so they could compete on the play field. Learn more here if you want to suggest it to your school.

Croom's Robotics wins Vex Award

Although my sons team had only one girl on the team – there was a very strong participation by girls in the competition overall. The Vibots from McLane Middle School’s primarily female robotics team won the Educate Award.

It is great to see an event designed to promote interest in technology and engineering reach so many of our middle and high school aged girls

Grown Ups Deserve Merit Badges Too!

One of our Facebook friends, Alicia, alerted us to the fact that the Girl Scouts of America recently updated their badges to include Digital Movie Maker, Geocacher, and The Science of Style. Read all about it here. While we applaud the Girl Scouts for coming up to speed, the cool new badges appearing long after our own scouting days made us a little jealous.

Oh Google Image search. You so crazy!

We think that grown up girls should get badges for their achievements too! And while there are already celebratory rites and gifts surrounding many of life’s milestones (graduation, marriage, new baby etc) we humbly suggest the following:

The Good Breakup – End a relationship firmly but gracefully. No lame excuses, no getting back together, no changing your mind or booty calls. A clean, permanent break.

Kindergarten Kid  – Congrats you managed to keep one alive for five years. They’re vaccinated and potty-trained and probably already know a bunch of letters and numbers. It’s a big step toward independence for both of you.

Holiday Host – You know you’re a grownup when the family comes to your house for a major holiday. If you can manage to clean for guests, cook a big meal and keep family fisticuffs to a minimum, you deserve a merit badge!

Career Change – Not just  a promotion, not a new job in the same business, but a complete change-up along the lines of quitting a job in banking to become a minister. Or going to medical school after a decade or three ofworking retail. A change like that –usually in mid-life or beyond—takes courage and self-confidence.

What are some badges you’ve earned or would like to earn in the future?

Looks like the pressure is on!

Wow – we made the gaming press >8) Gaming Angels blogged about us so now we are working harder than ever to get our designs out there as soon as we can.

Click here to read the post

Hello world!

We are not quite ready for primetime yet – but we are working hard to get our first round of designs up and ready for purchase on our Cafe Press Site. Bear with us while the paint dries – in the meantime please like us on Facebook to get updates and launch announcements.