Today Gabriel held a Moonbots outreach event at the Brickfair Festival at the Dulles Expo Center near Washington DC.  Here is his report.

The Dulles Brickfair is a huge Lego event held annually that draws tens of thousands of Lego fans.  I  couldn't think of a better place to do an outreach!   When I showed up early to set up his display, there was a line that wrapped all around the parking lot!  I set up at the NASA booth along with Mrs Jaratt and her son, Colin.  The people at the NASA area focused on space and robotics, so it was a perfect location for the outreach effort.

I talked to hundreds of people about robotics, science and the Moonbots competition.   I can’t believe how many kids (AND ADULTS!) were really interested to learn about Moonbots and the robot that the Pi in the Sky team created for the competition.  I showed them the different pieces of an NXT Mindstorm and how they worked.  I think a lot of kids were excited to try building robots!

A lot of people asked where they could learn more about robotics, so I told them about after school programs, camps and websites to visit.

I also got to walk around the Lego displays at Brickfair and I saw some awe inspiring ideas, such as Colin’s Lego fort and boat.  I also saw astronaut equipment worn by Neil Armstrong!  My dad bought me a discontinued Mars Mission Lego set and brick arms.  It was really fun to talk with people about Legos and robots.  A lot of the kids that I talked with said that they were going to try making robots!