Gracious Professionalism and Robotics

Deerpark Robotics recently video conferenced with Cedar Valley's two First Lego League Teams.  The two teams presented their research and gave each other feedback as well as asked questions on their research presentations.  All in all the experience was pretty fantastic.  The two schools made signs for each other and support each other throughout the tournament with cheering and high fives.  In the end, all three teams received awards.  Each team from Cedar Valley won an award for their outstanding projects and Deerpark won the Inspiration Award for inspiring other teams to take on the First Lego League Core Values.   One of Cedar Valley's teams as well as our Deerpark team were invited to the Central Texas First Invitational First Lego League Tournament where sixty teams will compete among the best of the best in Central Texas.  

Geocaching in Language Arts Excursion

8th grade ELA teachers recently used Geocaching in their Language Arts Excursion.  Kids were given a reading passage with questions.  Each possible answer was given a coordinate, and if the students got the answer correct, they would find the next clue at the location using Deerpark's GPS units.  If they answered incorrectly, they would find an explanation of why it was the wrong answer, and have another chance to answer correctly.  This was done as a race so students were encouraged to answer questions correctly the first time.