Outreach
Print Ready!
The team’s expertise in CAD and 3D printing led to a request from one of the district’s elementary schools for help with 3D printers, which were acquired without a plan for their use. Christian, a sophomore who became so skilled last year that he landed an internship at a dental device printing company, led the development of our PRINT READY! curriculum project.
Our team members created, tested, and refined a series of lessons that address the important considerations, issues, and logistics for elementary teachers who want to implement 3D printing projects with their students.
Our innovative activities provide a content focus for teaching essential CAD skills and all the instructional materials needed. These include a Google Classroom with slideshows for presentations, a screencast to guide students in creating their own designs, and links to all the resources. The projects are cost and time efficient so each student can design and print two different models. The teachers will now be the students as the team leads them through the lessons in preparation for classroom implementation in the spring.
Girls FIRST
All-girl teams focus attention on the gender imbalance in FIRST robotics and STEM fields. We realized that we contributed to this imbalance by not actively recruiting girls in STEM and doing more to support their involvement over time. In our first 4 years, we had only one female member! She is now bioengineering major in college.
In 2022-2023, we decided to focus on inclusivity within our program because diverse perspectives and talents produce better decisions and results. We began personally recruiting female students from math, science and engineering classes; observed interactions in group activities that discourage girls leadership; and interviewed students about their experiences. We also interviewed an African American female professional about what it took for her to enter a male dominated educational program and career.
We learned that engaging and supporting girls in robotics has to start earlier than high school. Feedback from the girls on this year's FLL teams - and their parents - proved the value of having female role models. All plan to continue in FLL next year and some are looking forward to becoming Pioneers in high school.
FLL Mentoring
In our 7th year, members of our FTC team are continuing to mentor district FLL teams. Our members also volunteer as expert judges and referees in regional and state FLL tournaments.
Inclusive Robotics
In 2019-2020, our team programmed a native swift app that allowed visually impaired students to fully participate in classroom robotics. The app paired with the Lego Mindstorms EV3 via Bluetooth and used tactile and auditory features to engage the student. We made the local news and planned to implement this app more widely.
In 2020-2021, our team developed and tested alternative instructional materials that made coding accessible to an elementary student with cognitive disabilities.
In 2021-2023, the switch to the new LEGO Spike Prime robotics systems required us to start over to develop a compatible programming app for the elementary school robots. Our new IPad app was successfully tested by students with special needs in the spring. Now, it's functionality is continuing to be improved as the first group of students is using it to program with their classes.
COVID-19 PPE
During the pandemic, we 3D-printed and assembled face shields for healthcare workers locally and across the country. We also provided 600 for staff members in our school district.
