Robots!

Ben volunteered to be the head referee for this year's Philadelphia FIRST Lego League robotics competition.

He also volunteered me to be a referee. The competition was this past Saturday, and I wasn't sure which part I was more nervous about: once more being up to my ears in middle schoolers, or having Ben be my "boss." Fortunately, both things turned out fine. Just look how well we worked together:

Ben looks like I'm trying to convince him that robots aren't actually cool.

I didn't anticipate how fun it would be to hang out with a bunch of nerdy kids all day; they were all just so excited to be there it was hard not to want to squeeze them. Multiple kids were so excited/nervous that their hands were literally shaking as they set up their robots at the beginning of their round. It was the first time since I left teaching that I had a tiny yearning to be back in a classroom.

If only there was a school where I could just teach nerds. I was so impressed with these kids, they came up with all kinds of ingenious methods of getting their robots to complete the challenges - I would think a particular challenge could only be solved one way, only to see five different and extremely clever approaches. It never ceases to impress me how creative and smart kids can be when given the chance.

Like everything at the competition, the trophies were made of Legos.

I wonder if my job would give me the summer off so I could go work at CTY* again...



* Middle school nerd camp