We believe outreach is essential to our efforts as an FTC team. Through our outreach efforts, we hope to learn more about other robotics programs and increase awareness of STEM opportunities.
this year’s outreach
SEASON KICK-OFF EVENT
On the seventh of September, we had a wonderful time learning about the game and meeting other teams. When we got to the kick-off, we set up our display and then went to some seminars to discover various things like how to run a team and what FIRST is. It was an especially great experience for those of us who were new to the team and were learning this for the first time. We then connected with loads of other teams which was a super great way to start off this year in robotics because we got to meet others like us who would be building robots and
found common experiences.
girl’s day at the mit musuem
We participated in Girls Day at the MIT Museum on November. Girls Day was an awesome opportunity that brought together women involved in STEM. We held a booth at the event and interacted with girls, ranging from elementary to high school age, in the Boston community. Throughout the day we were able to talk to people about FIRST robotics and the 2019-20 challenge and competition. Additionally, we engaged with some of the kids at the event by letting them drive our robot. Our experience at Girls Day was super fun and a great opportunity to engage with the local community.
MENTORING THE WINSOR WILDWIRES
Our team has worked with advising our school’s FIRST Lego League robotics team, the
Winsor Wildwires, on several occasions. On October 28, our heads went to give advice to the team, as this year was the first year the Wildwires were competing. We gave them advice for competitions, keeping calm, and organizing, as well as telling them to feel free to ask us for help whenever they needed it. We also talked to them what a great opportunity participating in FIRST is and how fun it is to meet other students at competitions. On December 2, a small group from our team went to talk with the Wildwires the week of their first qualifier. We gave them a pep talk, some advice regarding interviews, and helped them organize
for their competition.
BOSTON DYNAMICS
On November 14, our team took a visit to Boston Dynamics. We were kindly shown around the public facilities by several of the engineers, who themselves were women in STEM and were very excited by how we wanted to uplift girls in the field. We watched a presentation on several of Boston Dynamic’s ongoing projects, were able to see their hydraulic humanoid robot in action, and were even able to try our hand at driving Boston Dynamic’s famous robot, Spot!
Future outreach plans
ftc all-girls teams
We are excited to connect with other all-girls teams and are preparing for a meet-up with local all-girls FTC teams.
Arduino DAY
We’re excited to have been invited by You-Do-It Electronics again to these two events, where we can showcase our robot and learn from the other teams and organizations invited! We love interacting with the younger kids who stop by to learn more about robotics.
tigerbots FTC #7593 and Sustainibility goals
We are currently working with FTC Team #7593 to develop ways FIRST teams can actively incorporate sustainable efforts into all aspects of the competition.
CAMBRIDGE SCIENCE FESTIVAL’S ROBOT ZOO
We are thrilled to have a booth at the Cambridge Science Festival’s Robot Zoo day, where we will get to share our robot with a broader audience! Other FIRST teams will also be at this event, so we’re looking forward to meeting new teams and learning about developments in the robotics field.
STEM NIGHTS
As part of our open house in the spring, we are tentatively preparing for a more general STEM night that we would host to encourage high schoolers and middle schoolers to learn more about STEM projects, clubs, and opportunities at our school.
Past seasons’ outreach
As part of our outreach efforts, we have worked with other teams, we have presented at our school, and we are currently working with iRobot to organize a facilities tour and presentation.
(Working with the Pioneers, an FTC team from St. John’s school)
(We also worked with the Juggerbots, an FLL team)
(We collaborated with Architecti Numani, an FTC team from the Newman School)
We also recently presented our progress and debuted our robot to the high school division of our school. By reaching out to our school community, we hoped to increase awareness of STEM opportunities and inspire our peers.
In addition, we are currently working with iRobot to organize a school presentation to increase our peers’ awareness of the STEM opportunities available to them.
During the spring of 2019, we ran a series of workshops for students of any experience or interest level in Robotics to come and learn about the way the team works and what we do. Our goal was to engage with our school’s community and also begin the recruiting process for new members for the 2019-2020 season. We talked about and did activities with mechanical engineering, coding, and our business team. Everyone who came to the workshops ultimately joined the team. It was a big success in terms of increasing the Wildbots’ influence at our school and sharing our love for STEM and FIRST.