In the first week of Term 2, a group of excited students, teachers and one parent flew to the United States to attend the Vex Robotics World Championship. One of those events some people will only experience once in a lifetime. The photo above shows the New Zealand teams at the opening ceremony.

We left Christchurch, 5pm on Monday 2 March and arrived in Houston Texas on Monday night, their local time. We had two hours at Los Angeles and nearly missed the flight to Houston which would been been a nightmare as we finished dinner after 12am. But at least we had a good night's sleep and had a whole day to visit the Johnson Space Center. The Americans are really serious about going to the moon and beyond!

We went to the visitor center which had displays of various spacecraft, science and other educational exhibits. Walking inside the re-usable Space Shuttle Challenger, showed us the size and how this small vehicle took people to space. 

Outside was the used flown SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket where the Burnside High School students found some relief under its shade. It was very hot in Texas! This photo also gives you an idea of its size. It is enormous!

One of the research areas is developing space exploration vehicles for the moon and Mars. 

The final trip was visiting the astronaut training facility where astronauts train for current missions. We also observed the NASA scientist and engineers at work developing the next generation of space exploration vehicles. There is an elevated path through the facility which gave us a really good view. NASA is one of Vex Robotics' biggest sponsors and it was interesting to see the similarities between the Vex Robots and the robots they are developing.

The Johnson Space Center demonstrated to us that technologists, scientists and engineers are needed as human space exploration is definitely happening. An exciting field for any of our students who are interested in technology. 

The next day we left for Dallas on a four hour bus trip. Another interesting experience on a never ending 6-lane highway.

The next morning we went to the Event Center with all the gear to set up in our pit. Took a while to find it though. There were 820 of these pits. 

The first thing the team had to do on Thursday morning was register. For this they needed to demonstrate that the robot complied with Vex regulations.

The team had 10 games against the best in the world. Even against outstanding competition they were able to win 4 games. A great effort! 

This picture shows the spectator stand for one of the divisions. There were 10 of these divisions.

It was a great privilege to travel with these awesome students and Mike and John to attend a world class event. See team video below.