Robot <3 Stories

Posted by Tiff in Travel in the U.S. | 2 comments

I’ve been all quiet on the blog front while being all frantic and spazzy on the homefront. In a few hours I’ll be taking a red eye flight to Providence, RI., where I will hop in a rental car bound for Montreal. That will start a 12 day epic photographic adventure back to Los Angeles…filming a cute little robot along the way.

Why a robot? Why Montreal? Why a car? Where am I going?

Short story: a robot has crash landed in Montreal!

Long story: read all about this project here at robotheartstories.com. Basically it’s a project that

“has paired a classroom in Montreal and one in Los Angeles and charged them with working together to transport a robot back home to outer space. En route to Los Angeles, the robot will travel to whatever destination the students choose, with the classes tracking its progress through GPS. “If the kids want to take the robot to Mount Rushmore to have tea with unicorns, a team—one photographer and a documentary filmmaker (hey hey! That would be yours truly and Mike Hedge!) will physically move it there,”

Lots of people are already talking about it, like in this article, even though the project doesn’t actually launch until the 17th. Lance Weiler has been thinking about doing it for a long time, fueled by his own childhood memories.

“When I was in elementary school we tied a note to a balloon and let it go,” says Lance Weiler, a Philadelphia-based storyteller who’s worked on several films and TV projects. “It’s those kinds of moments,” he says, “where kids fundamentally connect with something beyond themselves.”

Weiler says that kind of connection is missing in our test-score focused modern education system, and he believes Robot Heart Stories, a 10-day experiential learning project designed to spark the imagination, could reignite students’ passion for education.

I love so so so much about this project, and am really excited to be a part of it. But it’s not just for me or the students in the two classrooms! YOU can get involved to, in one of my favorite aspects of the whole thing. The robot is fueled by interest and passion (hello! So am I!) and when the project launches you’ll be able to download your very own “heartpack”…a little robot with space on it’s heart for you, your kids, your neighbors, your coworkers, etc., to write something that you love and are passionate about. These fuel the robot to help get it to Los Angeles, and for every 1,000 heartpacks that are sent in, money will go to creative writing programs in schools.

Look how cute the heartpacks are!

I.
Am.
So.
EXCITED!!!!!!!

So from here on out, or at least until the end of the month, I’ll be updating from the road with my little robot friend. I finished up the Tour d’Awesome just in time to head on out for the Tour d’Robot!

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