Meet the Cosmic Snowballs

In June, the Cosmic Snowballs will represent Iowa in the Florida Sunshine Invitational in Daytona Beach, FL. Ahead of their trip, we asked them a few questions about their season this year.

Q: How did your team come up with its name and logo? 

A: Our school mascot is a Comet. We wanted something that connected to our school identity but that was still unique and fun. Doing a little research, we found that astronomers sometimes refer to comets as ‘cosmic snowballs’ because they are masses of rock and ice flying through space. 

Q: What was the most exciting part of being on your FIRST LEGO League team? 

A: When we found out that we won our regional qualifier and were going to the state championship. 

A: Placing second overall at the state championship. 

A: Getting to work with new materials, new ideas, and new challenges. 

A: Having more opportunities than we have in some of our regular classes. 

A: Early in the season, students were slow to change or redesign their ideas. Sometimes, there were several weeks spent trying to make something work that wasn’t really working. Now, late in the season, students are more collaborative and also quicker to recognize how their ideas could be improved. Seeing our team members grow from being intimidated by the design process to fully embracing it has been so much fun! 

A: When the Snowballs were presenting their innovation project at the State championship, one of our quieter team members talked about “silent screaming” as one of the ways we celebrated. The team, coaches, judges, and family members watching all burst into laughter. I was so proud to see the growth in confidence for this team member, and it was great to get feedback from the judges that we definitely showcase how much fun and contagious energy we have as a team. 

Q: What was the funniest mishap that happened during a practice session?  

A: During an innovation presentation practice, one of the team members forgot his name. This spiraled into a lengthy session of giggle fits. Another team member, in an effort to stifle his laughter during the presentation, nearly bit his finger off. 

A: During one practice, there was a long debate about whether the dark gray item on Mission 2 (theater scene change) was a chinchilla, an elephant, or a magic lamp. This has not yet been resolved. 

Q: Can your team share a memorable moment from a competition?  

A: At the state championship, we had a practice session 20 minutes before our first robot game. Just about everything that could have gone wrong did. We got back to the team pit, sat in silence for about 15 seconds, then rallied to make the necessary changes. That first run ended up being not only our highest score of the day but also the tournament high score for that day. 

Q: What was the craziest idea your team came up with during brainstorming sessions? 

A: A few team members insisted that we could find a way to legally use a drone in competition. 

A: There was a brief time when we considered using catapults to launch audience members around the board. 

A: We asked Febreze to sponsor us. (They said “no.”) 

Q: Did you face any challenges this season? If so, how did you overcome them? 

A: When we got started with this year’s challenges, there were a lot of great ideas that team members built onto different robots. Suddenly, about two weeks before regionals, we realized that we had to find a way to get all of our team’s ideas to work on the same robot. It was a challenge initially, but it led to an effective and innovative system for quickly changing attachments in and out. 

A: During the state championship, we had to modify an attachment and its program in order to get everything properly within the home area before starting that run. It was hard to make changes without the time and space to run through the design cycle more than two or three times. 

Q: What was the most valuable lesson your team learned from your LEGO League experience? 

A: Sometimes, it is good to get outside your comfort zone and challenge yourself. 

A: I learned that there’s always a way to improve on what we have done, even if it’s really good already. 

Q: Which mission did your team find the most interesting and why?  

A: The chicken mission is interesting because we have explored a lot of different approaches. 

A: The soundboard is interesting because it has to be completed in a specific way in order to get full points. 

Q: Which mission did your team find the most challenging, and how did you tackle it? 

A: The light show tower has been a challenge because we have had a hard time finding a consistent solution. We have gone from levers to ramps to spinning components and have explored leverage and gear ratios in the process. 

A: The soundboard and concert missions are also challenging because there is very little room for error. 

Q: What is your team most looking forward to at your upcoming competition? 

A: The part that I have been looking forward to the most is getting to compete against people from different parts of the world, as well as just being in Florida. 

A: I am most looking forward to competing in the robot game. 

A: Meeting new teams from across the USA and getting to see what they’ve accomplished. 

A: Looking forward to connecting with teams from other states within the US but also other countries and seeing what elements they bring to the competition. Participating at such a high-level competition is a great experience for the kids and something they should be really proud of! 

Q: Is there anything else your team would like to share with us? 

A: This is our first year as an FLL team, so there was a pretty steep learning curve. The coaches and team members all had to do a lot of learning together, which helped us in the long run to develop a strong sense of teamwork. The success we have had this year is so far beyond what we could have hoped for when we got started last fall. We are so proud of the work that we have done and are excited for the opportunity to represent our hometown of Charles City, the great state of Iowa, and even the USA in Daytona Beach this June.