Excerpts from student journals:

Today, while I was S.C.O.E.  my group and I did an activity called “Robots Go Across the U. S.”.  We had Lego robots that had five different programs. We had to choose two places to go with the robots on the map, and we estimated how many times we had to hit the run button before the robot went into the state we chose.  My partner was Matt, Matt and I chose to move our robot on the map from Minnesota to Texas and finally up to Idaho.  Matt and I estimated that we would have to hit the run button eight times total before our robot went through the three states.  We ended up being correct.  This activity was fun because I got to use a Lego robot, and learn where different states are located, and I learned a new easier way to measure angles.
Alec

 
In the BiMathlon today we used robots to estimate how long it would take to go from one state to the next on a giant U.S. map. It was very fun. My partner Mike and I made our robot go to Texas and New York from California. We thought it would take 40 clicks to go the perimeter. We didn’t get it right but we were the second closest. One guy actually got it exactly right. It was cool!
Wyatt

In the BiMathlon I learned a lot, along with having fun.  We had Lego machines that moved when I pressed a button.  We had a big piece of cloth with a map of the United States.  54 clicks would count as one push of the button. My partner, Trysha, and I had to estimate how many clicks it would take to get from California to Florida.  It turned out our estimate was right!  It took eight presses of a button (8 X 54 = 432 clicks) to get from California to Florida.  Then Trysha and I did our own estimate from Florida to Washington.  Trysha’s estimate was right, but we didn’t get to Washington.  We got to Canada.  It was because our angle was wrong.  It was a lot of fun!
Madeline