This morning was off to a fun start with a brief bit of jump jam (a fabulous way to wake up!!!) prior to Case Move It: photos and video have been taken by our Group Managers (GMs)…

After all that moving, we were feeling pretty hungry and the pancakes that awaited were definitely well received. Once again, the fruit was scarce… we have plans to stock up whenever we can in future!

A new daily feature that was introduced today was the ‘expression zone’. This is when, each morning from now on, some members of the group present a short speech in front of the group, based on questions from one of four lists, featuring goals and reflections. This is a really nice way to get to know the group better individually as well as having the experience of speaking to an audience we aren’t familiar with.

We received the brief on Challenge X which was slightly overwhelming given the immense detail and complexity of the task. Our challenge is to propose a futuristic (but still plausible) solution including aspects of or all of the transport, habitation, and waste management for future space tourism on the moon. This is proving to be much more complicated than previously thought and on a very short time frame… if blogs get later then that’ll likely be the reason!

Before departing for our ‘NBA meets STEM’ talk, we tucked into lunch catered by the hotel. It was a short lunch, rice stuffed capsicum, which we demolished then headed out towards the Toyota Centre. We then heard an interesting talk from a Rice professor and someone from Microsoft about how STEM permeates through all careers. Not quite the biomechanics we were expecting from the name, but certainly, the venue added to the general excitement. After that was a short showcase, including educational Minecraft, the Texan Torque’s old competing robots, and much more.

We then ventured out to do a brief bit of shopping- which for us, was almost entirely spent fawning over Barnes and Noble- and then it was back to the stadium once more to catch the warm-ups. It was incredible to be able to sit so close and watch them as they prepared with such focus. Dinner adventures of the day were trying out some classic American game food- pizza for most of us, popcorn and cotton candy- plus looking at the surprisingly extensive range of Houston Rockets merchandise!

The game was incredibly exciting, and a little overwhelming. It was hard to know where to look. Even after a ‘Basketball for dummies’ briefing from a fellow group member, everywhere you turned there was something new and different to look at between the constantly changing chants, animations, breakdowns, replays, drill team, cheerleaders, and of course the game itself! Despite predictions, the hometown Houston Rockets won 111-104 in a very close and tense game. Exhausted, we bussed back towards the hotel and went straight up to bed for the night, heads filled with the roar of an ecstatic home crowd’s pride.

– Anneke, Emma and Jemima over and out