12/29/09 Portland Snowstorm

9 kids (10-11yo) were in class with me when someone from Oregon State University
Extension came by to announce that it was snowing outside.  Our first snow of
the winter and 2 inches was on the ground in very little time.  The surprise
storm caused super major traffic problems.  It took me 7 hours to get home when
it usually takes 40 minutes.

Anyway, upon knowing of the snow on the ground,  I told the kids to run down the
corridor to get a look at the parking lot.  On our walk back to the classroom, I
asked, "How would you build a robot to go through the snow?"

This became one of the most interesting deviations I've had outside of regular
class activities.  A flurry of inventions tried to find their way through the
snow.  All kinds of contraptions from plows, skis, threads, duallys, walking
sticks, etc. were tried and evaluated.  Obviously what worked on the carpet, did
not do very well in two inches of snow.

It's too bad we're back into rain.  We would have had a lot more interesting
robotic inventions worked out if we still had fresh snow on the sidewalks.

We sure had a lot of fun!