Outreach is a crucial component of FIRST Tech Challenge. Below, you can see some of the ways that we have spread FIRST, STEM, and robotics to our greater community.
Our local high school, Dulles, held an event for young students interested in STEM. We set up a mini-challenge for the attendees and thereby introduced them to FIRST and robotics.
During our weekly team meetings, we invited members of our community over to our home pit to demonstrate our robot and introduce them to what we do.
Our local elementary school, Cornerstone, holds an annual family carnival. We created a mini Battle Bots game with our robots, where students could have fun while learning about robotics.
Our local middle school, Sartartia, held this event. We hosted a booth where we presented our robot to students and explained the process of creating a FIRST team for prospective robotics enthusiasts.
In our most recent season, a team of seventh-graders joined FTC, called the Nano Trojans. Since they were new, we helped show them the ropes of the competition and helped support them to place second in our league.
Dr. Neil Doshi holds a PhD in robotics from Harvard University, and he was crucial in helping us troubleshoot certain aspects of our robot using his technical experience through virtual meetings.
Our local elementary school holds an annual family carnival, CCFFN. We created a mini robot soccer game where students could have fun while learning about robotics.
We held an online seminar for teams new to FIRST that students and coaches from rookie teams could attend to gain insight into some of the most important considerations in building a robot for this challenge.
Students from our local middle school started a LEGO robotics team in a league called FLL, which is associated with FIRST as well. We helped mentor them using our experience from our own robotics ventures.
Our local middle school, Sartartia, has multiple robotics clubs, and we visited each one. We presented to them about all of the aspects of FIRST Tech Challenge, such as how to start their own team.
We visited Code Ninjas, one of our sponsors, and gave a presentation to some of their students about FIRST Tech Challenge, including what we do as a team.
As a community team, we do not receive funding through our school. Because of this, we reach out to local and corporate sponsors in our community for donations, and in the process, we help spread knowledge about FIRST and STEM.