Robots of the Future win 3rd Place!

This weekend, I spent my time playing with some AAU students and some Lily Bunka students from Japan in a design project. You may remember my AAU-Lily Bunka experience from 2007.

This year, we again met new friends, struggled with different languages, shared creative visions and had fun. We had to create a stackable project that represented "building the future." When I thought of "separate themes coming together for one," the future, and combining Japanese and American culture, I couldn't help but think of Voltron (Thanks, Anthony). So, I drew this as a starter idea. The creative brainstorming with limited language resulted in .... robots! The Japanese students had a good idea ... first the robot was going to be made from trash and used to plant trees, the ole recycling message. But they had this idea of the robots holding a bridge between our cultures. We were possibly the last team to really get to building, struggling with realizing our vision. Oh, and the fact that at least 4 of our AAU students from Friday night didn't show on Saturday morning. But, we perservered. We got reinforcements and went to town building ... well robot-building.

We finished barely, having to get creative with fitting everything in the box, including some open chest surery on our robots. This morning, we set up, reverse strategized our "concept," gave a succient presentation and placed 3RD PLACE out of 13! Well done, everyone! I think it was becuase we had a clear, unique, cool idea done in a fun way. (Last year, we got complicated in our storytelling and looked like everyone else. This year, I put my brief-writing thinking to good practice.) Also, if you come from Japanese or American cultures, you are going to like robots, right?

Anyway, we played together a bit, ate some lunch, listened as 6 people thanked the same people over and over again, and said good-bye. I really liked playing with all the students and wish I could have got to know them better. I gave them my blog url. I hope you guys feel free to leave comments with contact info and links to other pictures. Friend me on Facebook (to the right.) Thanks for the fun. Once again, Team 4 rocked! Here is the picture proof.