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Sorted by date, oldest first.
Lincoln Airport, 1:30 PM Monday 7.24.06: As our group waited for a contact under an overhang, we suddenly found ourselves surrounded by agents dressed in gray. They had dropped from the ceiling of the overhang where they had been silently waiting for us. Without a word, they split us into two groups and hustled us into unmarked vans that were waiting around a corner. The windows were one-way mirrors so we couldn't see the way to our destination. We rode for about twenty minutes before the van stopped and we got out. The sight of an old warehouse greeted our eyes, in fact as far as we could see, we were in the middle of a complex of warehouses.
We quickly went inside and waited while our identities were confirmed. We found out that our contact was already at the briefing somewhere in the maze of warehouses. Fortunately we were given a map and soon we arrived at the briefing center we ran up the stairs, just in time for...
OK, so it was a dorm building instead of a warehouse. And we could see out of the vans. But there was still plenty of adventure in store at the 2006 4-H National Technology Conference. Arriving yesterday at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, the two of us (Neil and Caleb) along with the rest of the Oregon delegation, eight youth and four chaperones, headed across the campus for an orientation meeting. We decided to intentionally miss the orientation and arrived right in time for a talk on how new technology can help 4-H.
After that we were surprised to find that we were in for some games, including hitting each other with noodles. As we tried to figure out what that had to do with technology, we went to dinner. Then we went back for the Skillathon, in which we collected data on top-secret experiments. For obvious reasons, I'm not at liberty to explain them.
Today we were again met by secret agents who quickly escorted us to our conference "focus areas". These ranged from digital video editing to LEGO robotics to civil engineering. Having greatly improved our knowledge of our respective areas, we got ready to go to dinner with our spy rings, I mean state delegations. More coming from here at the conference!
I was detached on special assignment to the robotics containment unit at 7.45 July 25. I met my co-conspirator after the shift change and my brain was still reeling from the programing code I was downloading intravenously. With the help of my partner I quickly learned how to make the robot move and then follow a line. We took a break for our MRE's and I met briefly with the rest of my team for an update on their program's satus. When we returned to the contanment unit we learned how to make the robot stay inside a square. We also programed it to play music.
7.45 July 26 Back in the robotics containment unit, my partner Chris (whose last name I can't tell you) and I receved our instructions for our first training assignment. We had an hour to plan and create a robot that could wrestle the other agents' robots out of the sumo ring. We quickly went to work planning the mechanics and software programs. I worked on building the mechanics while Chris worked on the program, then we checked each others' work and tested the robot. We made some modifications to it and tested it again. It worked perfectly. We finished well within the hour, so we decided to add some fight music to it. Several other agents' robots went first, and then it was our turn; we failed utterly and completely. In our confidence we had neglected to test the program with the music. The robot had ignored its insructions and only played the music. We could only watch as others went ahead. Later we reprogramed it, taking the music out, and entered in the free for all. It took on all the other robots and finaly won...
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University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 22:43 Wed. 7.26.06: Day three at the National Tech Conference. Today again we started out by going to our focus area classes. If nothing else, we'll all be in good shape at the end of the conference from walking across across the campus several times a day. In "Lights, Camera, Action!", we finished cutting and editing scenes from a three-minute movie we were provided with. No coincidence, cough cough, excuse me, but it was about spies. Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time for us to perfect our edits. Today was the second and last day of classes, and we only got this morning.
After that we went to a different building and cleaned up old computers to give to disabled people in Nebraska. That involved taking them apart, cleaning the components, and installing Windows 2000. Oh, I almost forgot to mention: we removed certain confidential information from the computers' hard drives. Of course, I'm not at liberty to say what.
Well, that's
Uh-oh! The transmission's being intercepted! Over and out.
7.27.06: After lunch we again found ourselves waiting, tipped off that an unknown contact would take us to our next destination now that we had finished our focus areas. It was the last full day of the conference, and sure enough, our contact arrived and took us to where we started our post-conference workshops. Everyone in our state was doing GPS/GIS. Using these technologies, one can find the coordinates of a point (GPS) and input them into a computerized database. Then the points can be imported onto a map (GIS) by layers that can be used to find different relationships between types of points. For example, we entered points for doors of buildings that could be used for emergency shelters. These could be displayed on top of an aerial photo of the campus, and have information stored with them, like the name of the building and whether or not it's wheelchair accessible. One could also put secret meeting locations, or some such thing.
Looking back on the past few days, let me take a few minutes to reflect on the conference. I think the biggest downside was the lack of time, which made it hard to balance discussion and hands-on work in the focus areas. The conference did well on planning plenty to do, but it didn't leave much free time. Breakfast in the cafeteria started at 7:00, focus areas (with a lunch break) lasted from 8:00 to 4:00, then dinner, some kind of evening activity, state meetings, and that fills up the schedule. If there's any extra time, you'll find the computer lab full of people looking at MySpace. Every few minutes, someone asks "Do you have MySpace?" Come on, people, get a life! Don't you know there's more to do than use the Internet? I talked to a lot of people that were very happy with their chosen focus areas, so those seemed to be planned well.
Now that's it almost over, we've been challenged to think about how we can bring what we've learned back to our states and communities. The goal is to get technology integrated into all the project areas of 4-H, not just the ones that are based on technology. In Oregon, we hope to start county and state technology teams. These teams will focus on representing 4-H technology to 4-Hers and other youth in their communities. Overall, I'd say everyone learned things from the conference and had a great time. The opportunities provided by a program like 4-H are endless, and we're all looking forward to seeing where we go from here.
Disclaimer: parts of this blog may or may not be true. Of course, we're not at liberty to disclose which.
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