Rock Cats Robotics Night

For the past month we've been selling Rock Cats tickets for May 27th, and we got fifty percent of the amount. While we were there, we set up a table and posters displaying our work, it helped us raise about $ 120! :)

Having work to show people what you've done really helps because they see what we've actually accomplished.

New Members

The scale model of the new car is coming along great......except for the fact that we ran out of PVC pipes. :/ not good.
At first we started to put the model together with masking tape, but we learned the hard way, and realized that it kept falling off. So we made it the way a first grader would make a pinata. Paper Mache! :) It was extremely messy but very fun. The more we worked on the model the more excited we got for the race.

Exciting news!
We have recruited a lot of new members to join the SKIDDLES solar car team (hopefully we can send them all to Texas this year).

-Abell Asres
-Agnes Kosciolek
-Alejandra Munoz
-Christian Torres
-Daniel Jablonski
-Daniel Marcantonio
-Eden Beaudoin
-Heidi Holt
-Kamal Sahoobah
-Mahmud Chowdhury
-Sam Kelly
-Wojtek Marianski
This is exciting! :D


Our beautiful family :)

-Skiddles

PVC Model

Today we decided that we couldn't have everything done if everyone was at one working station, so we split up into sub groups. Ian led a group of the members to the design, where they will make a scale model of the new car out of PVC pipe. Eden led another group of people to brainstorm on some ideas for fund raising seeing how we are in great need of money. @_@ While those members were occupied, the rest of the members, mostly the ones who went to Texas already, worked on fixing up the old car for show and tell. :)

-Skiddles

New Design

The Dell Winston Solar Car Challenge is eight months away! yay! :)

One of our Junior members, Ian Martin, created a new design for the upcoming race. It will carry five solar panels instead of three, for more efficiency and power. The new car is also designed so that the tallest member (6'2) can drive as well as the shortest member (4'11). :) Which is a big difference from the old car we have because it would have been very very cramped inside the car for someone at the height of 6'2. Another change the new car has, is that instead of having a joy stick for steering, we will have an actual steering wheel. Much easier!

-Skiddles

New Beginnings :)

Our team usually doesn't start the solar car until the beginning of January because our team participates in the CT BEST and the South's BEST Robotics Competition, but this year we decided to started early because of the success we had in Texas.

We talked about the good and bad about the competition. Also, about what we can do to improve the car, etc. Finally, everyone decided that we should create a totally new solar car, a better, faster, and more efficient one. Especially since we'll be on the road race this coming year. The meeting dispersed with a feeling of excitement and anxiety.

-Skiddles

Football Game

Today the Skiddles team attended a New Britain High School football game, which we raised $150 from donations. At the game we brought the car and set up a table with all our posters and achievements.

Rock Cats

Today we went to the New Britain Rockcats Stadium to fundraiser and to show off the car. We raised about a good hundred dollars. :D It was very fun because the little kids that come get so excited when they see the car, even though they don't know the significance.

Fi-Tech

While many teens are out on beaches and swimming in pools, the NBHS Skiddles Solar Car Team Attended a Fi-Tech Orientation.
Fi-Tech is a program available to the high school students interested in science and technology. The program promotes science, engineering, and technology to future Bill Gates because they are the future. :)
At the orientation, we brought the car over and showed them what we accomplished in four weeks, what we did at the race, etc. Everyone was very impressed! It turned out to be a blast because even thought it was beautiful outside, we were inside talking and showing off the solar car. Everyone enjoyed it, that's the beauty of it, to show everyone how much you learn and how you can have fun at the same time! :)

-Skiddles

Going Home

On the flight home, the team was thinking about a new name for next year. But then we thought, we should keep the name Skiddles because it’s original, and when you say Skiddles, everyone will know its us. :] So we all agreed on keeping Skiddles. Then maybe, when we get another car, we can name it snickers :]

So we finally got back to New Britain at around 6:30. We’re pretty glad the week is over. It’s been a long week. We’ll finally be able to get some rest. The work, the arguments, the sweat, all paid off. J Can’t till next year. Driving from Texas to Colorado. That should be fun.

*The Skiddles team are going to modify the car so we can compete in classic division next year, and design a new car for the open division as well. Then, if we get enough funds we can compete in Australia for the Panasonic Solar Race in October of 2010.

-Skiddles

Day 6

We were all very sad today was the last day. :[ Our car didn’t go as well as we thought it would. One of the solar panels wasn’t charging enough so the car kept slowing down a lot. After a couple of laps we just decided to get off the track so the car could charge a little bit and go for the final finishing lap.

Quyen! Our only Driver.

At the awards ceremony, it was probably the happiest and the saddest moment. We were all happy because we placed SECOND!!!! And sad because tomorrow, we have to leave. :[ Congratulations to Houston team for the first place in Open Division and Classic Division. Good Job. Congratulations to Winston for second place in Classic division.

This is our first year in the competition, and placed second in the open division! Now aren’t you proud of us New Britain?!?And did i mention we received the Guntis Terauds Award!? :]

Skiddles!! & then theres Jonathan :]

Oh yeah, and we got 3rd place on the 100 meter dash. ^_^

- Skiddles