On October 9th, from 6-8 p.m., we went to Cedar Park Elementary School in our school district with our first robot, Ranger Rick, and showed the students and teachers there our team. We allowed the children (and adults) to drive the robot as we explained to them about FIRST. Many of them seemed very interested in robotics, though maybe not FTC yet, as most were 10 or younger. We aided one of the mothers in finding a program for her daughter, as she had been cut from a list for Cedar Park’s robotics program. Because of the limited amount of space in the school’s robotics program, this apparently was not a unique position for parents of students there. We talked with this mother (while some other parents listened in) to help her figure out where she could go to get her daughter into robotics. We also met up with a few of our old teachers from middle school, who had come down to the STEM Fair from Valley Middle School. We talked with them about robotics and engineering, and one (a math teacher some of us had had) later approached us to talk about Hour of Code. We later all attended the session to learn the basics of code. We loved seeing the eyes of children and adults alike light up as we told them about their opportunities in FIRST. It was very inspirational for us to see so early in our season just how much we could affect our community, helping them to reach opportunities they wouldn’t have otherwise known about.

On November 22th, from 12-3 p.m., we participated in another STEM Fair, hosted at Thomson Reuters in Eagan. This fair was developed by a Girls Scout working on her Gold Award and was targeted toward girls in grades 5-8. We talked about robotics program and also did a civil engineering demonstration with “asphalt” cookies. During the time we were there we met with over 100 girl scouts talking to them about how asphalt is made and what civil engineers do. The mother of the girl scout we were helping out was a civil engineer herself, and she came in and talked to the girls about her job. The girls were very much intrigued by the presentation, and many of the girls asked questions, showing their interest in engineering. Over food and sodas, we talked about engineering and science. We liked to see their apparent fascination with what we do as a robotics team. Although there were over 100 girls there, we were able to connect with most of them. Of those who we connected with, there were a select number that we could tell were robotics fanatics in the making. Since quite a few of them were only a grade younger than us, they were very appreciative of the fact that engineering is not just for adults. Girls their own age, girls that they could see themselves in, were talking with them about engineering and robotics. We loved that we could provide this special opportunity for them.

On November 20th, 2014, from 6-9 p.m., we met with two engineers from Target, who gave a presentation to us about what types of engineers there are and what they do at Target. We then discussed our robot ideas with them and they gave us tips on how to improve our design. Later, one (Janell Hibberd) volunteered at the Minnesota state robotics competition. She also came into talk with us repeatedly about our robot.

On January 14, 2014 from 10:15-11:15 a.m. our high school had a field trip planned for the eighth graders in our district to tour the high school building. At our school, a few of the major programs (sports, debate, speech, etc.) are allotted a few minutes to present to the eighth graders on a whole. We, however, opted to engage with the eighth graders on a much more personal level than as a group of over 400. To do this, our team set up a table in our school’s lobby and gave brief talks as the eighth graders were touring the building. Many of them seemed very interested in joining not only FTC or FRC, but maybe creating their own new teams next year. We encouraged them to do so and offered our mentorship should they choose to follow through. We printed off brochures to give interested eighth graders, and many seemed eager to give it a look over. Since not all of the groups got a chance to stop by our table, we also gave a couple stacks of brochures to a science teacher who also was the math team coach of one of our members. He was very willing to hand them out during his classes. In all, we spent about one hour talking with the eighth graders and felt very pleased that we could help young, interested minds to best utilize their skills in engineering and science. We also made sure to highlight the fact that FIRST is not just about robot-building, although that is obviously a key part. We told them about the important communicative, management, financial, academic, coding, and technological skills that we get out FIRST. We were exceptionally happy that we could reach out to students before they even get to our school. This will definitely be something that we want to do again next year.

On Wednesday, January 14, 2015 we went to Echo Park Elementary School and talked with their 4th and 5th graders. We went to their school at the end of the day, having decided to break our outreach into three sessions. First, we met with one half of the fifth grade. It started out okay, with us talking with them about our team and what we do. However, we began to get the feeling that we were losing them. These were fifth graders, after all. So we decided to change tactics. Instead of telling them about our team presentation-style, we began to ask for questions, expanding on said questions when they were asked. At the end of our thirty minutes with them, we were laughing and talking easily with them. They were extremely engaged and very interested in our robot (as expected for fifth graders). Unfortunately, our robot had a slight malfunction, and we were not able to show them the robot in action. Then, that group left and the other half of the fifth grade entered. By this time, we were much more comfortable, interacting easily with the fifth graders after we had gotten a feel for how things went. During that session, we also told the fifth graders about our game challenge and asked them what they thought. There was never a moment after that without at least five hands raised to share. By the end of our second session, we were feeling so connected with the fifth graders that we had them pose with us in a large group picture.

On Monday, January 26, 2015 we went to the Minnesota State Capitol. After class, we took a school van up to the Capitol to meet with Senators Clausen and Carlson. The weekend before, we had gone up to Eagan High School to meet with the Green Girls, a fellow FTC robotics team. While we were there, we talked about a presentation to show the senators that we were planning to meet with. However, a few days later, the Iron Maidens were talking and rationalized that it would be better to brainstorm a few topics to cover. Then we would simply discuss these topics with the senators instead of presenting a PowerPoint to them. We felt that this would allow us to better connect with them. On the 26th, we arrived at the Capitol with the Green Girls, ready for our discussion. We met with the senators in an open area at the top of some stairs where we could properly demonstrate our robots. Senator Clausen (representative of the district that we are in) arrived first, an eager look on his face to start the discussion. He was closely followed by Senator Carlson (representative of the district the Green Girls are in). We immediately starting talking with him about our team. We told him about what we do as a team, where we hope to go, and what he can do to get more girls in STEM. As girls in STEM were the focus of our presentation, we talked with him about graduation requirements and a new bill that he has been trying to pass. At our high school, we have computer science classes, but they must be taken as electives. However, they do not count as a core subject. With the required classes that we must take and the electives most people are in (performing arts, world languages, etc.) most people cannot make room for computer sciences in their schedules. We talked with him about partnering with the school districts to get computer sciences to count as core credits so more people can take them.

A few weeks before our state competition, the team found an online article about a girl called Miriam, a fifth grader from Rosemount Elementary School. She had tried to join her school’s robotics team, but was rejected because she registered too late. So the young girl took initiative and formed her own after school robotics team. We were immediately interested in such a young girl doing so much for STEM in her school. We decided to contact Miriam’s mentors and ask her if she’d like to come in to one of our build meetings on Thursday or Sunday. We also extended the invitation to the three other girls who had joined her robotics club. On Thursday, February 5, 2014 from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m., we had Miriam and the other girls in her robotics team come to our build meeting during that time. We began the time by introducing ourselves and having them introduce themselves. We then jumped right in and explain our game challenge to them. From there, we got into our strategy from the last game, which led perfectly into what we are planning to do in terms of our robot for the next meet. We explained to them how our pivot arm will work. We then sat them down and asked what they thought about the challenge. They began to talk about scoring mechanisms, so we got them out some paper and had them sketch what they were thinking. They then explained their designs, while we stood by to offer advice. We were very impressed that at such a young age these girls had such a grasp on how different designs would work and which ones would be best.