Thank You!!!!!

The Lunar Welcome Mat

Thank You From The Just Ducky Parents

The MoonBots competition has been an incredible, hands-on learning, STEM experience for our teenagers during a time we now fondly refer to as “The Summer of The MoonBots”. Lunar X Prize Foundation and LEGO Mindstorms opened a whole new world of exploration for our team.

We have listened intently to our government highlighting the “Educate to Innovate” campaign. We don’t know when this STEM initiative will reach our Midwestern farms and suburban side streets. But this program when implemented seems to focus on older students in high school and college. By this time it is too late for most students. We echo Dr. Bobby Braun’s thoughts in his August 9, 2010 open letter to college students: “Good systems engineers are not born; they are created over time”.

As 9^th and 10^th graders, our children are eager to develop their engineering and research skills to the next level (FTC) if they were to win a kit. With each competition, we watched our team tackle difficult engineering problems and solve real world issues. They worked with intense determination and energy. The MoonBots challenge launched these young minds into the future galaxy of endless creativity on their way to becoming the problem solvers of tomorrow.

As parents we want a better world for our kids. We want to encourage their ability to understand our world and beyond always. Thank you to all the sponsors and efforts of Google Lunar X Prize MoonBots for answering our educational call with this lunar spark. We are the parents of future global thinkers, inventors and aerospace engineers. MoonBots opened an important door for our teens. We will responsibly keep the door open, the welcome mat out and the Just Ducky cupcakes baking in our Midwest ovens J

Final Blog from Team Just Ducky Members

It is three FULL Moons later and we once again find ourselves racing to the finishing line, this time to the ticking time clock of MoonBots Phase 2. The bright Green Corn Moon of our August sky lies more than 252,000 miles away. This is where we set out to explore in earnest. We had some failures, some success and lots of fun. We learned more than we thought we would. We aimed for the sky and tried not to miss. This glowing moon is within our grasp. We want to continue our lunar journey. Thank you to the Lunar X Prize Foundation, LEGO Mindstorm and all of the sponsors for challenging the skills of our 9^th and 10^th grade minds. We tried our best and look forward to our EPIC robot run this week.