This year's problem was "energy."

You have to research energy and then come up with a innovative solution to energy issues. Energy comes in many different forms, wind, solar, even human! And each form has its issues.

OUR SOLUTION IS A GRAVITY BATTERY! ✨

We learned that many places don't have a lot of energy to go around, and almost every place suffers in issues like blackouts. Here in Texas, we got a huge blackout that lasted for days! We were not prepared for it, and we all wished that there was some way we could get instant energy when we need it. Sounds crazy, right? Well that's exactly what a gravity battery does!

This crane's offical name is "concrete waterfall," but were going to call it a gravity battery. To learn more about it, search Concrete Waterfall. 

A Gravity battery is a tall crane made from cost-efficient materials. It lifts up concrete blocks. It takes them high into the sky until they reach the top of the crane. As this happens, energy forms into the concrete blocks. Now there is energy waiting at the top of the gravity battery. This is called "potential energy." Now, whenever you want, you can release the blocks. They will go down, down, down, releasing that energy to power millions of homes all at once.

We made a mini version of the gravity battery, made of metal. First it was an idea, then it was a drawing, then it was wood, now its metal and amazing! It can actually lift up a 20 pound bag and drop it, powering our Lego city. It doesn't even use a battery, just pure potential energy!

WE WERE ON SA LIVE!

SA LIVE is a Live TV Show! 

We met new people and shared our project solution and robot to the whole world. Now that we did this now over 27,000 households know who we are and what we love to do. 

WE TALKED TO ERCOT!!!

You've probably heard the name ERCOT. Its a massive, worldwide, energy company. And we had a Zoom Meeting with someone from ERCOT! Thanks to SA Live as well as our Facebook page, people got interested in us. Including several STEM engineers! ERCOT taught us so much about what ERCOT is like, and many energy diagrams and facts. He also gave us a bit of feedback about our gravity battery. He said it was a good idea!

WE TALKED TO DNV!!!

DNV is a wind turbine company---an amazing one! A project manager from DNV shared some fun stories and taught us SO much about wind turbines! Wind turbines are an amazing form of energy. Then of course we shared the gravity battery with DNV. She thought it was an excellent idea!!! We can't wait to see what DNV has in store for us next. 

OTHER AMAZING People we talked to:

TEXAS TECH TEXANS: A college team that researches wind turbines! They agree that there should be more gravity batteries around.

A CIVIL ENGINNEER: He came over and learned about the gravity battery. Then he checked out our mini-version and gave us awesome tips.

AN ELECTRICAL ENGINNEER: He taught us so much about basic physics, such as the "right hand rule" and how motors and generators work. We are so thankful to have learned this stuff to help us with our project and robot!