November 3rd was our 5th meeting and it was super exciting! This week the turtle-elephant was added to our “zoo” to represent not having to carry a large burden alone and not feeling so stressed. Many girls are enjoying this portion of the all hands meeting because it shows universal ideas that everyone learns from! After some fun during triad fun time, the 8th graders and the high schoolers separated for business then technical teams.

The eighth graders made serious advancements during this last meeting! They added arms and claws to their recently finished little bots. Then they test drove the robots up the “mountain”. “I enjoyed making modifications to the robots the most!” says Cate Seay.

During the business portion of the meeting, the media team had a visitor. A film instructor, named Molly Duerig, showed the media team her work and gave us tips and tricks to making better videos. The finance team worked on things like the different fundraisers we are doing this year. The outreach team also worked with a visitor – Julia Deems from the Tepper School gave a talk about “Creating Effective Presentations.” The outreach girls also discussed the new events that are coming up soon, like the Mini Maker Faire at Barnes & Noble on 11/8/15. New to the team, a new subteam was introduced called the Awards Team. This puts more emphasis on the business team and the importance of awards.

For the last portion of the meeting, the girls became more familiar with the aspects of their technical teams. The programming team installed and started using their technology software. The design team continued to learn more parts of the CAD software to draw up parts. Girls in the mechanical subteam were reminded of the safety and uses of some machines.

Next week we hope to further our understanding of our jobs to help with season preparation and the End of Preseason Project!