Meeting #20 - 2/13/08

This morning we spent most of our time reading through the script. We did at least three times, two of them timed. Both times we came up over seven minutes but less than eight minutes so the length is just about perfect, although once all of the sets and props are used I expect it to take a little bit longer. One time we read through and concentrated on missing props and we generated a list of props that need to be gathered and/or created. Please ask your student what they are supposed to be bringing to our meeting this weekend. We need to start getting all of these materials and costumes gathered and put together. At our meeting this weekend we plan to work more on the set revealer pieces, to start decorating the backdrops, and to begin on the final version of the optical illusion. Much has been accomplished but much does remain to be done.

Meeting #19 - 2/10/08

The team got a lot of work done today. They played around with one of their side trips involving a light behind a blank sheet and shadows, it worked out really well. They also worked on their other side trip involving a dance set to the classic song Kung Fu Fighting. Some more design work and another trip to Menard's got them very close to the three revealer set pieces and have a decent rough draft of their optical illusion.

We will be meeting again this Wednesday. We'll be reading through the script so they can start learned their lines and I'll be timing to see how close they are to filling the time.

We will also have another meeting next weekend, I'll send an email out when the time has been finalized.

Meeting #18 - 2/3/08

The team made a lot of visible progress today. Check out the pictures of their scenery structure in the photo album.

They measure and cut PVC pipe, dry fit it all together, and then glued it all together. Next they figured out a tentative way to hook their scenery up to the structure. They also have a rough draft of their optical illusion complete. The big thing they still need to make some progress on is the three revealer set pieces.

This week they need to work on those darn revealer set pieces, and painting their scenery. If anyone has any idea on how to paint onto sheets (like what kind of paint to use) please let your student know. We will probably experiment with some old sheets or pillow cases if anyone has some they can send along.

Meeting #17 - 1/26/08

I figured I better get this entry written before our meeting tomorrow morning!

Last Saturday was quite entertaining. First we did some script reading and timing, the total presentation can be a maximum of 8 minutes. The first read through took over 9 minutes, not a good sign! We then did another read through a few minutes later and it was a little over 7 minutes. Things are still shaking out so we'll see how it turns out the next few meetings. It doesn't appear we'll have any trouble filling the available time.

Next we confirmed our shopping list and hit the stores. We gathered some interesting looks from people with 7 seventh graders piling out of a mini van and invading Menard's, Hobby Lobby, Kohl's, and Shopko. The team was successful finding the hardware they needed for their set structure but came up short on the soft side. My basement is now full of PVC pipe and fittings, zip ties, etc. but in the quest to find big sheets of fabric to hang from the PVC structure they came up short. They had the good idea to look for sheets when the fabric selection at Hobby Lobby didn't meet their needs but the quick trip to Kohl's taught them sheets were going to be too expensive. Luckily later that night I was at Sam's Club and my wife pointed out a great deal on six flat sheets in one package for a reasonable price. We should be all set to start building this coming weekend. I think we will have a meeting this weekend, I just haven't decided when yet. A good chunk of the day Saturday I'm going to be in Seymour running an instant challenge at this weekends Instant Challenge event so it may end up being Sunday around noon.

Please mark your calendars for Saturday February 23rd at 9:20am. This is the day and time of the "Sneak Peak" where teams show a little something they are working on and get to have a little practice in front of a friendly crowd. We are actually having three sneak peeks that day so our session should only last one hour, there will be 6 teams in our sneak peek group. The last couple of years the sneak peeks have gotten too long and with record participation this year we had to do something to keep it to a reasonable amount of time.

Only about 6 more weeks until the tournament!

Meeting #16 - 1/23/08

The team worked on logistics of how to build the sets and the revealer pieces this morning. We will have a meeting this weekend where we will start to purchase the materials they will use to do the actually building.

Not all of the tasks people agreed to do got done so there is still a lot of work to do. Hopefully some of these items will come along to the meeting this weekend. Pictures capturing some of the thoughts that were planned on the board are in the photo album.

Meeting #15 - 1/16/08

This morning the team divided up some tasks and got some assignments. Everyone agreed they would work on the following items for next Wednesday...

Katie
Kung Fu Jacket
Draft of Painting of Hippo in a Snowstorm
Draft of Artists Painting and Frame
Insurance Documents

Erin
Popcorn
Glasses

Klayton
Artwork That Converts to Ladder Concepts/Models
Police Officer Costume Stuff

Thalia
Easel
Draft of Artists Painting and Frame

Corrin
Easel

Austin
Artwork That converts to Ladder Concepts/Models
Stuff for Guard Costume

Tamera
Random Art for the Museum

I think that is everything. Everyone was supposed to write down their assignments so they should know this already.

We also did a quick read through of the script, the story is starting to come together.

Last we did a quick instant challenge called "The Bridge to Nowhere". The team had to build a structure sticking straight out from a wall as far as possible with no supports touching the ground. They did a nice job on the challenge.

Meeting #13, IC Workshop, & Meeting #14 1/13/08

I've been falling behind on my blogging lately so here is my big catch up entry. First of all check out the photo album, new photos from last weeks Wednesday meeting, the IC workshop in Seymour, and the meeting from today. As you can tell the pace is really picking up.

I'm happy to report the team is making great progress on their story, hitting all of the main required elements, identifying both of their side trips, and a script is quickly taking shape. The "heavy lifting" of creating the sets, costumes, etc. still remains but it's nice to see things falling into place.

We are going to have a meeting this week Wednesday. During this meeting we are going to attempt to divide up the tasks that need to be accomplished and assign them to smaller segments of the team (2 or 3 team members) who can hopefully get together and work on things. The team is so busy with different activities that finding meeting time is very difficult, the hope is that the smaller groups of two or three can get together and make some progress and bring the results to a larger team meeting. With the exciting developments of the Packers from this weekend we probably will not be able to meet next weekend.

The IC workshop in Seymour was great. The team showed a lot of creativity and the quality of the challenges was excellent, a very nice variety. This is always the highlight of the DI season for me personally, I love the creative atmosphere and even thought teams learn a lot during this season it is also a tremendous amount of fun with no pressure.

The story is looking to be very entertaining and I think the team is doing a good job with the required elements and trying to maximize their points. I'll spare you the details but I think it should be a very entertaining performance at tournament.

I let everyone know how the meeting goes Wednesday and what people have agreed to work on.

Meeting #12 - 1/6/08

Our first weekend meeting!

Although we were a little shorthanded the team did manage to get a lot done today. The basic outline of the main elements of the challenge are more or less in place except for the dreaded "three revealer set pieces" - I'm confident the team will be able to come up with something in the next week or so.

The main elements of the challenge are a story about a secret, the secret must be revealed in the story and there must be three set pieces that join together during the story to form a new piece and help reveal the secret. The story must also include a masquerade character and an optical illusion. It is a surprisingly complicated challenge. Hopefully the team will resolve the last few details of the story and main elements and then begin building sets, props, costumers, writing and practicing lines, etc.

We will continue to hold weekend meetings whenever possible, we'll play it by ear each week depending on what is going on so stay tuned to your email!

Meeting #11 - 1/2/08

The first meeting of 2008 is over and wow does the team have a lot to do before tournament day (March 8th).

We started the day with some quick instant challenges to get the brains working. Some Popsicle stick challenges (changing the shape by moving a certain number of sticks) and a quick teamwork memorization challenge where the team had to memorize the placement of 30 cards in about 1 minute. They quickly realized they needed to work together and split up the task to achieve the goal. Unfortunately they didn't make sure everyone was on the same page and some were memorizing a row while others memorized columns. They also didn't realize until the last minute that in addition to remembering the value of the card they also needed to remember the suit. They figured this out just as time was running out. Because of this they only got about 1/2 of the cards back in the right spot, all of the cards but two were in the right spot for the value of the card (2, ace, king, etc.) but only half were the right value and right suit.

The team then moved into working on the main challenge. To be honest very little progress was made. I'm hoping the weekend meetings we are going to start having will help things gel a little better because we aren't making much progress during the morning meetings.

Crunch time is now upon us, only about 8 weeks until tournament!

Meeting #10 - 12/19/07

Wow I'm writing this post on 1/1/08, and the meeting was held on 12/19/07 so it's been quite a while - I'll see what I can remember :-)

This was the last meeting before the holidays so we did a fun holiday themed instant challenge. The team was divided into two groups. One person from each group remained in the room to receive the instructions while the others went into the hall to be blindfolded (or they had to promise to keep their eyes closed their choice). The people in the hall did not know what they were going to be doing, their task was to wrap some presents blindfolded by following directions from their group member that remained in the room. Overall both teams did very well on the challenge. Their are some great pictures in the photo album of the challenge in action.

The team spent the remaining time brainstorming and discussing their main challenge. The general idea is there but still needs some refinement to pull it all together. We also discussed and brainstormed different ways to construct sets, basically seeing if they had any ideas to break out of the typical cardboard backdrop modes I've seen most teams do. Hopefully this week (tomorrow!) they can solidify some of the main attributes of the challenge and we can start holding weekend meetings to start creating all of the items required.

That's all for this week, at least until tomorrow,

Mr. H