Recapping the robotics MinneTrials competition

December 18, 2024 HPSH Plaid Line Leave a comment

By: Nathaniel de Sam Lazaro

On Saturday, December 7th, Highland Park’s robotics team, the Automatons, competed in the MinneTrials robotics competition.

MinneTrials is a competition hosted by team 2239, Technocrats, in Hopkins. The robots are built for a game separate from the one used in the main competition season, which occurs from January to April each year. These robots are constructed by first and second year members of the team, while third and fourth year students serve as mentors. This is designed to teach newer students the skills necessary to work on a robot once the older students have graduated.

The competition was hosted in the gym of L.H. Tanglen Elementary, which is located next to Hopkins High School. Ten teams competed, though two teams had multiple robots, so the total number of robots competing was twelve.

The game consisted of 21 qualification matches, with alliances of two robots competing against each other. This meant that each robot competed in approximately every third match. Prior to the qualification matches, there were also two rounds of practice matches.

Our team won one of our two practice matches, but there was some confusion over the rules of the game.

Unfortunately, the rest of the competition was met with technical issues that had to do with our robot. In one match, the robot emergency stopped for thirty seconds. In another, we realized that the laptop we had planned to use to control the robot had not been charged.

In the end, we ended up losing all but one of our qualification matches, and were ranked tenth out of twelve.

After the qualification matches, the top four teams were able to pick another team to form playoff alliances. Unfortunately, we were not picked to compete in the playoffs.

While the competition did not go as we had hoped, we are glad to have learned from the experience. After the competition, our team had a meeting to discuss what happened and the general consensus seemed to be that the first and second year students were glad to have had this experience. This was our first year competing in the competition, and we are planning to return next year and hope for a better result.

Travel/Food

Peanut butter chocolate chip cookies review

December 18, 2024 HPSH Plaid Line Leave a comment

By: Norah Hoglund and Max Cahoon

While chocolate chip cookies are very delicious, what is even better is peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. We tried this recipe out because right now is the perfect time to make cookies and share them with your friends and family. Just make sure no one is allergic to peanut butter!

Review

Taste

These cookies had such a good taste; we would say they were probably some of the best cookies we have ever made. The peanut butter makes them really really good because the saltiness of the peanut butter contrasts the sweetness of the cookie and it is a really great flavor, especially if you love peanut butter. A lot of people know that chocolate and peanut butter go really well together, and that fact does not change in this instance.

All of the ingredients in this cookie just go very well together and make for a great cookie. It is also not too sweet, due to the peanut butter. When they came warm fresh out of the oven, they were the best. We had them with milk and we agreed that they were some of the best cookies ever.

The only downside is that once you taste them when they are warm it’s a little underwhelming when you eat them at room temperature, but you can always warm them up.

Our rating: 9.9/10

Ease of making

These cookies were a bit of a challenge to make. We decided to brown the butter (see how in the recipe notes), even though the recipe doesn’t call for it, because it makes for a richer cookie. The recipe said to melt the butter anyway, so we browned it in a pot and added the peanut butter to the butter.

Once we had mixed together all the wet ingredients and dry ingredients, we mixed the two together. The dough then was very thick and we had to mix it with our hands because a whisk or spatula couldn’t mix it.

We filled up two trays with all of our dough and decided to put both trays in the oven at the same time, to save time baking them. The only thing we had to change was to bake them for 2-3 extra minutes.

The rest of the instructions were fairly easy and these cookies were definitely worth the effort we put into them. It was also a really fun experience making these, especially if you love baking. Our rating: 8/10

Overall

Overall, these cookies were so delicious and fairly easy to make for a high-quality cookie recipe. These cookies were very good and absolutely worth all of the effort we put into them. It was a fun experience. We rate this recipe a 9/10 and you should absolutely try it.

Here is the link to the recipe: https://handletheheat.com/peanut-butter-chocolate-chip-cookies/

Recipe

Ingredients

▢ 2 1/2 cups (318 grams) bleached all-purpose flour, measured correctly
▢ 1 teaspoon baking soda
▢ 1 teaspoon baking powder
▢ 1 teaspoon fine sea salt
▢ 1 stick (113 grams) unsalted butter
▢ 3/4 cup (202 grams) creamy peanut butter
▢ 1/2 cup (100 grams) granulated sugar
▢ 1 cup (200 grams) packed dark brown sugar
▢ 2 large eggs plus 1 egg yolk, at room temperature
▢ 2 teaspoons vanilla
▢ 2 cups (340 grams) semi sweet chocolate chips

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt.

In a large heat-safe bowl, microwave the butter until melted. Vigorously stir the peanut butter into the hot butter until well combined. Stir in the granulated sugar and brown sugar until well combined. Add the eggs and yolk, one at a time, stirring well after each addition. Add in the vanilla. Gradually stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the chocolate chips.

Dough may be loose and slightly crumbly. It will not appear like normal chocolate chip cookie dough. If it’s unbearably crumbly, that’s likely due to discrepancies among brands of peanut butter and if you used unbleached flour. Add 2 tablespoons milk if that’s the case.

OPTIONAL: If time permits, cover the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours but no more than 72 hours. Let the dough sit at room temperature just until it is soft enough to scoop.

Divide the dough into 3-tablespoon sized balls using a large spring-loaded cookie scoop and drop onto prepared baking sheets. Flatten dough slightly into disc shapes with your palms. Dot each disc with a few extra chocolate chips for picture-perfect cookies.

Bake for 12 minutes, or until golden brown. Let cool for 5 minutes before removing to wire racks to cool completely.

Cookies can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days.

NOTE: to brown butter, cook it in a pan on medium heat until it turns golden brown. This should be 5-7 minutes after it melts.

Tech/Games

‘Sky: Children of the Light’

December 18, 2024 HPSH Plaid Line Leave a comment

By: Cleo Newton

For about the last year, ‘Sky: Children of the Light’ has been my favorite mobile game.

It’s a game where you have to find and gather winged light (which take the form of glowing children). After acquiring your first winged light, you form a cape and your first wedge. This wedge is the amount of times you can flap in a row before having to recharge when flying. The amount of times you can flap is displayed on your cape to other players. The cape in this game is key when flying, without one, you can’t fly. Flying is crucial in many parts of this game; you may not be able to get to certain places if you can’t fly. The animation for the capes in this game mimics the way wings flap.

You can gather more winged light as you explore the world and discover new places. In each place, there’s a shrine where you can log down the new area and add it to your map.

There’s a reason why this game is called ‘Children of the Light’, in the game, there are supposedly no adults (they have all passed). All the adults are spirits. Spirits are another important aspect in this game. As you find more spirits, you get to relive a short but important part of their life. After finding out their story, you gain an emote, or in some cases, a new voice (The voice changes every time you “honk”).

Honking can be used to find other players in the game or to summon nearby butterflies. These butterflies can be used to recharge your cape. Another use for honking is to flip over crabs. The crabs in the game are hostile and will attack you, “yelling” to flip them over keeps them from hurting you.

Throughout the game, you’ll find red candles with bits of light/wax floating above the flame. You can collect these and use the wax to forge candles; these candles are your main form of currency in Sky. You can use it to buy cosmetics from the spirits or from temple elders. Cosmetics include pants, masks, hair, capes, and props.

In this game, you can light up other players with your candle to see what they look like; it’s kind of like saying hi. After this, you can spend a candle to either talk to them on a nearby bench (if available) or friend them. If you don’t want to spend a candle to friend someone, you can send them a code which then can be typed into a bar (in settings).

Sky has annual events that last a few weeks. During this time, you can buy limited time cosmetics and props. You can also do this with the seasons Sky hosts. The seasons are like events but last longer and have more things you can buy.

Lastly, there are different realms you can explore. The last one being “The Eye of Eden”. Here, you climb a mountain before giving your winged light away to statues. I think these statues represent fallen skykids. After giving away all your winged light, you die and then get reborn. Part of getting reborn means you get ascended candles, a more difficult form of currency to acquire.

After getting reborn, you will lose all your winged light but you will also gain a new winged light which will be added onto the total count after you regather all your winged light again.

After reading this, I hope you’ll consider playing ‘Sky: Children of the Light’. I would give it a 4.5/5.

You can play ‘Sky: Children of the Light’ on multiple platforms including, the Switch, Steam, and mobile devices (Android & Apple IOS).