On the 15th of December, team 624 held a mock kickoff from 12:00 to 2:30 to help prepare new members for the upcoming season's kickoff. Anuraag Routray, Matt Duong, and Alex Dial were the main presenters, going into action creating a presentation showcasing what should be prioritized at an actual kickoff. The event had 37 members; 15 of those were new to Team 624. The presentation was accompanied by a smaller version of 2016's Stronghold game manual and other tools accessed at a kickoff to further give members a better in-depth experience and knowledge of what truly happens during the real event. The training session ended with a closer look upon Armada; a past robot that was made for Stronghold. Students learned about the past mistakes that accompanied Armada, preparing them for next season's game. To end the article, team 624 would like to acknowledge the three members who gave alot of effort to accomplish an event; thank you.

Another busy week for Team 624 with the wrap-up and submittal of our Team 624 FIRST Safety Animation Video for judging. The Animation Team (lead by Alex Dial) and Safety Team (lead by Andy Hassun) worked closely to create the attached Safety Animation Video following the theme of “Destination: Deep Space” and the FIRST focus on workplace safety. Congratulation to Alex, Andy, and all those who contributed to this effort. Sometime early next year we will hear from FIRST on who was the overall winner of the Safety Animation! We have our fingers crossed!Here is the link to the completed safety animation stored on our picture gallery page.https://gallery.team624.org/Coming-Soon-1-6-18/2019-Safety-Animation-Entry/

Wow, what a weekend!!! Team 624 just completed hosting its annual Katy-CRyptonite FIRST Lego League (FLL) Qualifier! This year Team 624 hosted 27 teams, more than we have had in the past, in the Katy-CRyptonite Qualifier. As expected, Team 624 CRyptonite put on a high quality event that allowed the teams to showcase their hard work in Teamwork, Research, Robot Design, and Robot Performance. From their performance, 9 teams won advancement tickets to move forward to the East Texas Regional Competition to be held at Stafford High School this spring.Thank you to everyone who volunteered for the event. We had over 40 students and 30 adults helping in areas such as refereeing, judging, practice field oversite, robot demonstrations, and concessions. Without everyone's help, this event would not have been possible!Over the next week, more and more pictures will continue to be added to the Gallery linked below. Thanks for the mentors and students that took these pictures!https://gallery.team624.org/Coming-Soon-1-6-18/FLL-Katy-Qualifier-12-1-18 Go Team 624!-Anuraag Routray: Student Coordinator for Katy-CRyptonite Qualifier-Mike Outlaw: Adult Coordinator for Katy-CRyptonite Qualifier

Team 624 is very proud to recognize Team 624 CRyptonite/Cinco Ranch High School Sophomore, Kyna McGill, for receiving the United States President’s Volunteer Service Award!  The President’s Volunteer Service Award (PVSA) is the premier volunteer awards program, encouraging citizens to live a life of service through presidential gratitude and national recognition. By volunteering more than 100 hours over the past 12-months for organizations such as the Girl Scouts and Mensa, Kyna earned the highest honor of the Gold medal (see attached photo).Kyna is president of the Gulf Coast Mensa teen group, an active supporter of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) through mentoring, training and workshops for FIRST Lego League (FLL), and is a member of the Cinco Ranch High School CRyptonite (624) FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) leadership team.Please join Team 624 in congratulating Kyna!

Team 624 Parents and Mentors,Wow, what an extremely successful 10th Annual Science Day Camp (SDC)  this past weekend! One of the many ways Team 624 encourages and grows the focus of Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) in our community.  Cryptonite students led the way, manning science stations, and assuring all those attending learned a new level of STEM. It was a fun and educational success with more than 110 student “Campers”, grades 4th through 7th attending.  The Campers rotated through a record-breaking 10 different STEM-based stations (in honor of our 10th anniversary!), including several new stations such as biomedical engineering, material science, detective chemistry and civil engineering.A few highlights include prototyping and testing earthquake-proof buildings, learning about monomers and polymers while making slime, using forensic chemistry to identify the culprit in a diamond heist, going bananas while controlling a computer (ask your student about that one)!!Please view our gallery of SDC photos at https://gallery.team624.org/Coming-Soon-1-6-18/Science-Day-Camp-11-10-18/.The feedback received at the end of the day was incredibly positive and we could not have had such a well-run event without the steadfast support of Team 624 team members, parents, mentors and other volunteers.Thanks Again!