Front Porch: Vision Charter robotics teams perform well at state – Idaho Press-Tribune

In January, I talked a bit about Vision Charter Schools First Lego League robotics teams and how awesome they did at the regional qualifying competition for state. Now I know how they did at state on Jan. 28!

The best news, in my opinion, is that the Crazy Cobra team brought home the Teamwork trophy. They deserved it, too, because not only did the power and lights go out while they were presenting, but they also had a major accident involving their robot just one week before the competition and had to reconstruct it at the last minute!

The Terminators also brought home a trophy, for presentation, for their project presentation of an original song and a bat box they designed. That same team earned 12th place out of 42 in the robot competition.

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As for Mammal Madness, they tied the Terminators in actual points in the robot game and earned a perfect score on their project evaluation!

Congratulations to all of you! Way to represent!

Next up for Vision Charter robotics: All four of the schools teams (if you were counting, theres another team that didnt make it to state) will come together to build and compete with sumo robots.

This could be interesting.

Treasure Valley encouraged to read The River Why

I wasnt aware of this program before, so maybe you werent, either, but theres a reading program called Read Me Treasure Valley that encourages everyone in the Valley to read the same book. This year, the book is David James Duncans The River Why. Organizers billed it as a wonderful novel of fly fishing and spirituality, then quoted Barnes and Noble as calling it a coming-of-age comedy about love, nature and the quest for self-discovery.

Meanwhile, youth and families are being encouraged to read Where the River Begins (beautiful picture book) by Thomas Locker or Chomp (bestselling and humorous 290-pager) by Carl Hiaasen.

If any of that interests you at all on a book lover level or a be-part-of-the-community level, or even a fly fishing level, there will be a launch party at 11 a.m. Thursday at Esther Simplot Parks Central Pavilion, at 614 N. Whitewater Park Blvd. in Boise.

The follow-up event to that will be a visit from the author, David James Duncan. He will come by in early May for a special presentation, so Id suggest having the novel read by then.

Woman to teach happiness workshops at Nampa library

A former owner of two software services companies sent the IPT an email Monday to announce that shes giving four workshops on rather interesting topics, may I add at the Nampa Public Library (215 12th Ave. S.) on Tuesdays from 10:30-11:30 a.m., beginning this Tuesday and ending March 7.

The womans name is Rose Edvalson, and her topics are:

Feb. 14 Imprinting happiness

Feb. 21 Betraying happiness

Feb. 28 Experiencing a change of heart

March 7 Living a meaning-filled life

The workshops are free and are based on the works of Martin Seligman (director of the Penn State Positive Psychology Center) and Terry Warner (a philosopher and business consultant who focuses on self-deception).

Link:

Front Porch: Vision Charter robotics teams perform well at state - Idaho Press-Tribune