Community Engagement
Pen-A-Thon 2023
Every year during the month of November, the Simsbury High School hosts a 22-hour event dedicated to pen making to give to retired veterans and active duty veterans as a "Thank you" for their commitment to our country. Individuals who participated in the Pen-A-Thon donated money that was put towards Veterans in support of their mental health and mental health resources.
The Robotics team has been participating in the Pen-a-thon since its initial start in 2016.
In 2023, four people aided students as mentors during their pen-making hours. Overall, there was about 20 people who participated in the event.
Simsbury Spooktacular 2023
This October, Sim-City took part in the local Simsbury Spooktacular event hosted in a nearby town park. This Event is driven purely to engage with our local community and provide a fun experience for the locals. Our team was honored to be part of this event because it allowed us to give our town an inside veiw into what our teams does. We demonstrated both our 2021/22 robot, Terrance, and our 2022/23 robot, Shirley.
In October, 15 team members participated in this event.
Simsbury High Schools STEM Night
This year, Simsbury High School took part in the first annual STEM night to allow elementary schoolers the opportunity to gain insight in the STEM field. The event concluded with a 30 minute presentation by our captains, accompanied with two sets of rookie drive teams participating in two mini-competitions with our robots.
In 2022, the entire team participated in this event.
8th Grade STEM Workshop
Annually, the Simsbury High School hosts a STEM workshop for a group of 8th graders interested in the STEM field. Our team members participate by showing them how to drive the robot as well as manipulate the current year's game pieces.
In 2022, 11 people on the team, including the co-captains, participated in this event.
Our team showing 8th graders how to control the robot
GIRLS IN ENGINEERING
Girls in Engineering is an annual program organized by the Simsbury High School in which incoming freshmen are exposed to the world of engineering. This program gives young girls going into high school the opportunity to experience the variety of this field firsthand, including driving our robot, flying drones, learning to 3D print, and using the laser engraver.
In the 2022 program, over half the members of our team took initiative to help show around the girls, as well as just to help organize the event as a whole.
In 2023, all of us continued to support Girls in Engineering, as well as one of our mentors acting as a special guest speaker.
Eighth graders at Girls in Engineering, learning how to drive our robot.
Pen-A-Thon
In November of every year, the Simsbury High School hosts a 22-hour event dedicated to making pens to send to retired veterans and active duty veterans. The Pen-A-Thon also consists of a silent auction which raises money towards Veteran Suicide Awareness.
The Robotics team has been participating in the Pen-a-thon since its initial start in 2016.
In 2021, almost our entire team participated in making pens all night, and others taught younger children about the process of making pens
In 2022, 18 members of our team participated, and five members spent at least 18 hours making and teaching other people how to make pens. Two members of the team organized the entire event.
“My favorite thing about the Pen-a-Thon is just everyone coming together to make pens for a good cause. There's people I don't know or that don’t do engineering necessarily that all still come here and make pens. There’s also all being here at a late hour making pens, there’s something about that sense of community"
- Rohan R, a co-captain of the robotics team
2021 Pen-A-Thon
Go Baby Go
Go Baby Go offers children with significant mobility impairment a means of mobility to explore their world. Mobility is important to peer interaction, cognitive development and in motor skill development.
In 2018 and 2019, our team along with one of our previous coaches, Cameron Bopp, modified Power-Wheel cars to provide assistive technology to meet specific needs for young disabled children in town.
Some examples of assistive cars made by Go Baby Go groups
FIRST Lego League (FLL)
FIRST Lego League guides youth through STEM learning and exploration at an early age. From Discover, to Explore, and then to Challenge, students will understand the basics of STEM and apply their skills in an exciting competition while building habits of learning, confidence, and teamwork skills along the way.
In previous years, we've supported the elementary school FLL teams raising funds for them, sending groups to the school to do STEM-based presentations to the kids, and sending mentors down to sit-in and help at their meetings. Due to COVID-19, our local elementary schools have stopped participating in this program, but we hope to restart soon.