The USA Science and Engineering Festival

We had a great time at our exhibit at the first ever USA Science and Engineering Festival on the National Mall in Washington DC on October 23 and 24! We were fortunate to be part of FIRST's booth promoting FIRST programs. The crowds were amazing. In line with our goal of getting more kids involved with science and engineering programs, we talked to everyone - parents and kids - about the advantages of a science program like FLL, we demonstrated our robot and our SMARTwheel as examples of how far kids can go in engineering, and taught people how to program robots. We estimate over 20,000 people came by our booth in two days!

Just look at the crowds!

Here we are with our friends from FIRST!

On the Road on a Patent Search!

As part of our patent-oriented trip to Washington, DC, we visited Thomas Edison's Research Laboratory in West Orange, NJ on the way back. It is a National Park which had been closed for years but reopened about a year ago. It is awesome and right now you get to use an audio player which gives you a great tour with interesting background information about the whole exhibit for free. Kids under 16 are free and adults are only $7.

Thomas Edison held 1,093 patents and many of his inventions are on display. Park rangers give great tours of different buildings and can answer any question inquiring minds (like ours) want to know! Check out our slideshow for an inside look!