A big thanks to everyone who visited the Embers Robotics as part of the Twilight Market. All the robots and students appeared to have a great time and there was much dancing and interest by parents and students alike.  The First Robotics Competition (FRC) and First Lego League (FLL) teams hosted the First League League Jr (FLL Jr) Expo and we saw the FLL Jr students showcasing their Mission Moon projects and posters to the reviewers.  Both FLL Jr teams put in stellar efforts and the reviewers were extremely impressed by the calibre of the entries and the enthusiasm conveyed by both teams.  We were lucky enough to have robots from all four FIRST programs on display, with visiting robots from Wollongong teams Project Bucephalus and Gong Invaders being demonstrated, as well as this year’s FLL teams showcasing some of their Mindstorms robots on the Into Orbit field.  A big thank you to Josh Reid who organised and funded our amazing new banner, which will get a work out this weekend at the FLL National Championships at Macquarie University, where the Elonera Jellywhales will be competing. Also thanks to Natasha Debsieh who designed the banner and gathered all the photos. Our FRC team now has an official name “Embers” but we still need sponsors, who potentially can get naming rights on the team shirts. If you know of anyone who may be interested in sponsoring, benefitting from great exposure to students and tech industry leaders, please let us know. We also are still seeking contributions of tools to build our FRC robot – drills, drill bits, hex keys, spanners, sockets etc. If you have excess tools or tools that are no longer needed we can put them to good use. Donate your “old” ones to us and Santa may bring you some new and shiny tools for Christmas. 🙂 Just a reminder Elonera Montessori Robotics will be running a 1 day January Robocamp Jr vacation program, designed for Stage 2 students, which  will run on 16th January 2019. Places are filling fast with only a only a few places left.  We expect to run this program every school holidays. Embers Robotics programs are run by parent volunteers and funded by the efforts of the parents and students. We are currently participating in a fundraising effort run by the Greater Bank where we can potentially win $2000. We need as many votes as possible, so please vote for us at greater.com/latest-offers/greater-illawarra.  Voting is open until 19th December and you can vote every hour.  Please share on your social media and get family and friends involved. All money is used to fund tools and equipment to support the Embers Robotics team activities.