The Tornado of Destruction!!!

I have to laugh at the enthusiasm for the project and then solemnly remember when I hear my son say, "The Tornado of Destruction!!!".


Here we are testing out our Tornado Simulator after we had tweaked it a bit to get a better vortex.  It is an upside down Tornado.  I am not sure how to make it form right side up.  Any suggestions?  We used dry ice and two fans attached to batteries.

Alabama has Tornadoes all year long but the season peaks in March/April and October/November. 

My son and I were in the activity center of this church having social skills lessons during this tornado.  The picture made the news.  It was taken by Ryan Crim.  It was before the April 27th Tornadoes and was taken in January of 2010.  We were not meeting as a robotics group then thankfully.  Come to think of it...most of the children that are in our robotics group were at the same social skills lesson.  I am glad that none of the kids saw how close it was.  What would happen if that spire was hit???

We do have to be careful when discussing Tornadoes.  Most of the kids in my group went through the April 27th Tornadoes, which were much much much worse.

It was hard to keep track of where they were popping up on the radar screen on TV because there were so many on that day.  Then in the evening all the power went out.  It was almost a week before it was restored.  I remember how hard it was to find out information afterwards.

Luckily at home I had prepared beforehand and had an emergency kit.  I had a Coleman oven, stove and fuel for pizzas.  My son is a selective eater, something that is common in the autism community.  There were few things he would eat and pizza is one of them.  I think that was my biggest worry.  What were we going to get him to eat.

There was a few things we hadn't thought of preparing beforehand like having enough gas in our car.  We did not go anywhere as a result.  We also did not have a generator or a grill even though I had made up for it by the Coleman stove.  A friend of ours was able to locate a generator for us a few days after.  I used all the food in the upright freezer to keep the fridge cold.  Most people took theirs out and had a large cookout.

One major problem we did have was we needed to keep yogurt cold. That was because it was the only way my son at the time would take any medicine.  We learned a lot during that time.  Every one here has a story.

Thankfully we all survived, but what we went through that day always comes to mind when the Tornado sirens go off.  Others in Alabama were not as fortunate as we were.  They will be forever in our hearts, minds and prayers.  We dedicate this post to them.

A Disaster....

We had our first disaster...well sort of.  We found a website where we could practice skills at helping people during a Natural Disaster.  The goal is to save as many people as you can while keeping the town protected.

Here is a link to the game...  

Stop Disaster Game

During our next team meeting we kind of got off subject by having to put out some fires.  Although firenados are interesting that is not what our project is about.  

We are going to have to have a Social Skill Lesson next time about appropriate behavior and Core Values.  We had gone over that, but a couple kids were probably not there during that meeting.  All goes with the territory of having kids on the spectrum.  Let's see what creative ways I can do this.  Got any suggestions?

We had a new member start who will be a big asset to our team.  His Mom drives him all the way from Birmingham so he can attend.  He has been looking for a team with kids who he fits in with.  I am glad we are here.  

We talked about what we were going to link our QR codes to.  We all drew graphs and ideas about what we want our informational website to be about.  Next meeting I am going over the suggestions and combine them all.  Here was an example I showed on our Facebook page of what could be possible.  We are not going to use this.  It seems when you show the kids an example of what you are talking about they instantly relate.  

Next post I will tell you about the field trip we took.  

Thank You!

I would like to say "Thank You!!!" to a couple of our supporters from Piggybackr.  

Grandpa Orv - who was a Science Teacher for a lot of kids and knows the importance of STEM (Science/Technology/Engineering/Math).

The Reardon Family - who are friends of ours from Orchestra and whom like Dr. Who also.  

Teri Nelson - who was our first violin teacher and an inspiration as a teacher to those with special needs.

Lisa Wiggins - our current violin teacher who believes in this team. 

Jean Murray - Jakob and Camryn's Grandmother

Also a big Thank You to the  ANONYMOUS  persons who have also contributed.  We appreciate the support.

Peggy Stevens - a friend from the Autism community.

                                      

Piggybackr and EV3

We have started a fundraiser for all those interested in supporting us for another year.  

 

Please check out this link.

Piggybackr

Here is what we would like to do with the funds:  

Buy a one or two EV3's for the kids to use....

The new EV3 robotics Kit has come out.  I hope we will not be at a disadvantage if we don't have one.  In this kit you can use 4 motors instead of three.  That means you have one more motor for attachments.  
The NXTstep blog talks all about it. 

I did order the new caster ball attachment.  My son loves the functionality of the caster ball.  The other part shown here is a smaller turntable that I ordered.  There is a larger version of it in the Lego NXT resource kit.

 

You can order the Ev3 Education Core Set for $339.95.  The expansion kit is 99.95.  With a whole new system you will have to buy a software license $99.95 and a new battery charger $59.95 with a plug to charge it $24.95.  I don't know if you can charge it with your existing chargers.  The total comes out to $624.75.  That does not include shipping.

Okay is it worth it...let's see.  Here is what ToyBrickStation says:

Also we will need Registration Fees for next year's season.

Registration Fees:

$225.00

Field Set Up Kit:

$75.00

Local Registration:

around $60.00

T-Shirts:

$150 - $200

Last year I had to order a minimum so I ended up paying for 4 extra shirts.

Grant money does not cover all the expenses like shirts and trades at the qualifier.  It does not pay for the meeting cost or the presentation materials.  I am the kind of person if I am going to do something worth while I am going to do it right.