Frontiers of Flight Moonday 2025

By Fernando, Nalin, Ren, Alyssa, Nirjha, Jai, Anuhya, Alex, David, Elm, and Anda

Task: Introduce FTC robotics to passerbys at Moonday

This Saturday we were exhibitors at the 17th annual Moonday, which is held to honor the anniversary of the first moon landing in 1969. Moonday is hosted by the Frontiers of Flight Museum in Dallas,Tx. This year, there were approximately 1000 attendees. During this event, we introduced robotics concepts like programming and designing.

We held 4 main stations to demonstrate skills we've developed in the FIRST program and fun activities. These stations include our Hovercraft, our Air Cannon, Lego EV3 robots, and our 3D printers.

Our Hovercraft has received some upgrades from last year, but still consists of the same fundamentals. It is designed using triangular shaped pieces from trash bags, a circular piece of plywood that is painted, duct tape, foam tubing, and an industrial leaf blower. Our newest attachment is a plastic inflatable chair placed on top of the Hovercraft to create a more comfortable ride and ensure individuals sit in the correct position. Kids sat on top of the chair and were guided using a small rod, simulating a carnival ride. Many children enjoyed the Hovercraft and felt as if they were floating.

Our Coca-Cola can launcher was a fan favorite! Our can launcher “sucks in” cans and then throws them out for kids to catch or dodge. Everyone also loved trying to drive and aim the cart the cannon sat on.

Using EV3 LEGO Sumo Robots, we taught students how to do simple block coding. They got to learn how to use color sensors to make sure the robot doesn’t go out of bounds, different motor functions to change the way the robot moves, and adding loops and wait times to see how long the robot does a specific action. Some kids even used extra logo pieces to customize their own robots for better performance.

The final activity we had was a station where kids could learn how to CAD simple designs and create their own keychains. We used SketchUp to teach the basics to 3D modelling like how to create basic shapes and extrude them as well as how to add text to their patterns.

On top of having all the activities for the kids, we got to talk to them and their parents about joining FLL or FTC. We even got to meet a superintendent of a small district that was going to start implementing FIRST, and we shared our experiences with her about how FIRST has benefited us. We also encouraged several parents and some teachers to even try and create a FIRST team at their school.

Overall, we had a blast hosting all these activities at Moonday and it was an amazing opportunity getting to connect back with our community and get both parents and children interested with FIRST.