On August 9th, we met with two representatives from Million Women Mentors, a national organization that is partnering young women interested in STEM with professionals in their chosen fields. This meeting was a follow-up to our presentation at their monthly meeting (see entry above for details), and we specifically discussed our next action steps to continue the Iron Maidens and Million Women Mentors: Minnesota program. One of the biggest projects we talked about was a possible digital marketing internship for this coming fall.

 

 

On July 27th, Cori helped author an application on behalf of Apple Valley High School for the Tekne Awards. The Tekne Awards are a Minnesotan organization that recognizes excellence in science and technology. Traditionally, the nominees are companies and organizations involved in innovation and STEM. This year, however, they added a category for education so Apple Valley High School decided to apply because of our E3 STEM program, which is funded by a Department of Labor grant and provides exploration, education, and employment opportunities for students. Along with the program director, community representatives, and grant organizers, Cori contributed to the application by writing two essays and helping edit the others. Although Apple Valley High did not win the Tekne Award for educational excellence, it was a great exposure opportunity for our school, and we loved being able to help out.

 

 

 

Towards the end of the school year, we visited an organization called Million Women Mentors, which is aimed at providing young women interested in STEM with mentors and training in their field of interest. We presented about FIRST, our team, our robot, and how MWM can help. This was an incredible opportunity because it was the first time that the Minnesota chapter of MWM had ever engaged with a FIRST team. Since our mission and their mission are so similar, this was a great jumping-off point to a long-lasting relationship. Please see the “Outreach Projects” section of this Notebook for details on how we followed up on this connection with more meetings and an eventual internship helping establish their social media personality.

 

 

 

On September 9th, three of our members visited Thomson Reuters for their annual “unconference.” When we arrived, we were given a large space to create a sphero arena, and a booth with the robot and the Engineering Notebook to show to people who walked around. In the middle of the unconference, we were asked to present in front of Thomson Reuters employees. We used this as an opportunity to practice our presentation for Minnesota Kickoff (about outreach in robotics). The presentation went very smoothly, and afterwards we continued to demonstrate our robot and the spheros. We had a lot of fun throughout the conference talking to the people of Thomson Reuters, as well as other FIRST teams.

 

On October 6th, we visited Permac Industries, a local manufacturing company based out of Burnsville, Minnesota. The Regal Kiwis, an FTC team we helped form in 2015 and have since mentored/engaged with continuously, invited us to attend after they received a generous financial grant from the company. At the event, we presented about our robot alongside the Kiwis. Using presentation slides on a tablet, we explained our approach to the game challenge, our design process, and our future goals for the rest of the season. The engineers and programmers we met with were extremely interested in Apple Valley High School’s robotics program and offered a lot of great advice. After the design review, we toured their facilities and learned about the various types of parts they manufacture. Overall, this was a great event, because we were able to reach out to a local company and its STEM professionals while also working with a fabulous team we have been proud to see grow over the last three seasons.

 

 

On November 6th, we visited the North American headquarters of Uponor: a company that has sponsored our team for the past three years. We presented with several other local teams  (including three from Apple Valley High School) about  FIRST and robotics as well as how our relationship with Uponor has helped us to grow as a team, giving specific examples of their support and its impact. After the presentations were finished, we demonstrated our robot and spoke to Uponor employees one-on-one. Following the robot demonstrations, we were able to tour Uponor’s facility along with the rest of the robotics teams present. We were able to witness their process firsthand, following the process that a pipe would go through until it was ready for shipment. We saw all different kinds of pipes and learned what each type could be used for, such as red pipes for hot water and blue pipes for cold water.

 

 

 

 

On September 14, we were invited to attend the Thomson Reuters Conference. We gave an hour long presentation on the impact FIRST has on students, after which demoing our robot to their employees. Along with Thunder Penguins, Blue Twilight, Cobalt Catalysts, and The Pride. Speaking to many employees getting them informed in FIRST.

 

 

On November 5th, we received an email from Jim Lynch, the STEM coordinator at our school. He asked us to apply for the STEM Fusion Grant that could potentially help our school earn $25,000. Fusion is an all-day event that is hosted by the American Heart Association’s Advancing Science teams. Their goal is to get students to explore STEM outside of schools, especially health care careers through STEM. Those who attend will be able to meet science and engineering companies from the Twin Cities. Ten schools were chosen to attend this event at Target Field on February 27th, 2018. Kathy a first-year Maiden decided to help represent AVHS by applying for the grant. She worked with AnneMarie, a coach on the team, to complete the application. On the 27th Apple Valley, High School juniors will be able to attend this event, meet STEM professionals, and learn more about health care through STEM.

 

 

 

On September 26th, two members were invited to a company called MISO located in Eagan, Minnesota by Jim Lynch and other Apple Valley teams; Knights of the Valley, Regal Kiwis, Attack on Robot and also Science Olympiad. MISO is an essential link in the safe, cost-effective delivery of electric power across much of North America. They are committed to reliability, the nondiscriminatory operation of the bulk power transmission system, and to collaborating on creating cost-effective and innovative solutions for our changing industry. We demonstrated our robot and had an opportunity to learn more about their company and how we could partner in the near future.

 

 

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On November 19, our team invited an engineer from Medtronic to join us for one of our meetings. During this time, we explained many of the different aspects of our team, as well as this year’s game challenge and our strategy for it. She was able to answer several of our team members’ questions about college and being a female engineer in STEM. This was a great way to connect one-on-one with a real-world professional and have her see us in the setting where we normally meet.

 

 

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On January 3, we visited PGC for a design review for the third year in a row. We demonstrated our robot for the five engineers. Some main points we talked about were the design of the jewel scorer, the relic scorer, and the glyph scorer. They gave us some great advice including giving us some adhesive for the glyph scorer and helping us figure out how to get the relic scorer above the outer walls.

 

 

 

On January 7th, the team met with a local businesswoman named Nisha Malaviya who owns ARCPoint Labs in Burnsville, Minnesota. They do drug and DNA testing for a variety of applications including ancestry tests, corporate drug tests, and tests for the county. We showed her our robot and Engineering Notebook, then talked about our team and the FIRST robotics program. She shared her story, including growing up in India with their education system as well as moving to the United States and setting up her own business. We discussed possibly visiting her labs in the future with some of the other robotics teams at Apple Valley High School as well as possible financial sponsorship. Overall, this was a fantastic chance to meet a local woman in STEM who has really made her name and had an impact.

 

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On January 13th, we visited a company called Seagate for a design review and tour of the building. They brought us around the building showing us millions of dollars worth of equipment. We learned a lot about hard drives and storage keeping. We also met six engineers who gave us a great design review. We demonstrated our robot's abilities and practiced our judge's interview for the engineers. They gave us some great ideas and helped us figure different information about our robot. It was a great experience.

 

 

On January 19th, Mr. Lynch (the director for Apple Valley High School’s E3 STEM program) invited us to send one Maiden to present at the Dakota-Scott Workforce Development Board with a few E3 STEM students. Because practically everyone on our team is also involved in E3 STEM, Mr. Lynch wanted us to speak to how extracurricular activities can complement and enhance classroom STEM learning. We decided to send Cori, since she was our project manager for the Uponor internship where we partnered with three E3 students, and she presented about FIRST robotics at Apple Valley High School. This was an especially exciting opportunity, because we were able to reach over a dozen community leaders from various companies, organizations, and schools (some of whom we knew and some of whom we didn’t).

 

On February 15th, we attended Independent School District 196’s STEM Career Fair hosted at our school, Apple Valley High. It was the second year that AVHS has held the fair and the second year that we presented. Each of the STEM activities at Apple Valley had a booth in front of the fair, and our table was the first one people saw when they entered the school. In addition to AVHS activities, the fair also hosted over 100 presenters from the local community including companies, organizations, the city, branches of the military, and more. As a team, we helped with many aspects of the fair including setup, takedown, and VIP tours. For example, we helped set up and take down the power system for all 100+ presenters in the gymnasium. We also toured VIPs like Minnesota State Senator Greg Clausen and ISD 196 Superintendent Jane Berenz. This was a great event because we were able to give back to the school that has given us so much support over the years. Since our school is over 40% of students of color and 45% of students on free and reduced lunch, helping run this fair was a great opportunity to promote diversity in STEM fields.

 

 

On February 27th, three of our team members attended the American Heart Association's STEM Fusion Event. The event lasted three hours and was held at Target Field in Minneapolis. Barbara, Marie, and Connie conversed with over a dozen professionals from the Twin Cities area about robotics and the STEM program at our high school. The purpose of the event was to award thousands of dollars for STEM activities to the schools that were present. The first place, second place, and third place prizes were ten thousand, seven thousand, and five thousand dollars, respectively. As a result of our efforts and enthusiasm for robotics and STEM at AVHS, we were awarded the third-place prize. This was an amazing opportunity to give back to the school that has provided us with so much support over the years.

 

 

 

On February 27th, our team visited Target Headquarters in Minneapolis for a robot demonstration with High Tech Kids, the organization that runs FTC in Minnesota. The several other FTC and FRC teams who were in attendance also brought their robots to demonstrate on and off the playing field. The FTC teams all competed in practice matches for the game challenge Relic Recovery, while the FRC teams brought robots from previous game challenges (such as Stronghold) to interact with Target’s employees. We answered a lot of questions about our team and FIRST robotics. It was a great event, because we were able to speak with real world STEM professionals from an incredibly influential company.

 

 

 

On March 2nd, our team was invited by another FIRST Tech Challenge team, the Green Girls, to attend a design panel at Thomson Reuters. We listened and asked questions as professionals gave advice on career paths and teamwork as well as presented about our team and talked to them. Although we weren’t able to bring our robot, we did bring our Engineering Notebook and used it to talk to engineering professionals about our robot. We also worked with the Green Girls and another FTC team, Visible Spectrum, on our Engineering Notebooks, giving advice to each other.

 

 

 

On March 6th, our team visited Stratasys—a 3D printing company in Minnesota—to present about our robot and receive a tour of the facility. We started the meeting off by giving a presentation about our team, our robot, and outreach efforts this year. We answered questions regarding our design decisions this year, specifically regarding our 3D printed parts such as the wings and the jewel scorer. The Stratasys engineers also told us about how they ended up at getting jobs at Stratasys. We then toured their facilities, learning about their various 3D printers and 3D printing materials. This was a fantastic chance to meet with real-world STEM professionals at a company that is quite literally shaping the future.

 

On March 30th, three of our members visited Stratasys to ask for advice on several of our 3D parts, and also request that Stratasys print them using their state-of-the-art printers. We met with Evan and Colton, two employees at Stratasys that we spoke to during our previous visit. We started by showing them two of the parts that we want to print, and explained what physical properties we wanted them to possess. First, we showed them our rotating servo mount and explained that the issue we are facing currently is that the mount itself is too heavy for the servo that it is attached to, and told them that we would like to make the part lighter. Next, we told them about our glyph grabbers and explained that we would like the piece that comes in contact with the glyph to be made out of a squishy material so it could grasp the glyph better. Evan told us that for the rotating servo mount, stratasys could print it in a material called Ultem 1010, which is an extremely strong and light thermoplastic. For the glyph grabbers, they could print the part with several materials on the polyjet printer.

 

 

 

On May 19th, we attended the Glacier Hills Elementary School’s Science Night for the fourth year in a row. We demonstrated our robot for the families that attended the event. We were accompanied by several other robotics teams, including Blue Twilight and Attack on Robot, who were there to promote STEM and robotics as well. We had a display of the posterboard, handouts, the Engineering Notebook, and signs to show people what our team is all about. On top of this, we brought our school’s “Ollie” robots for the children to drive around, which were a huge hit. We all had a great time at this event as we always do, because we were able to talk to students and parents that were interested in STEM and our program.

 

 

On the 26th of May, we attended our school’s first-ever STAVID Night, which was a partnership event between Apple Valley High School’s E3 STEM program and the AVID program. E3 STEM focuses on career preparation in STEM fields, and AVID on college readiness. At the event, we were able to demo our robot and our Ollies as several groups of kids were rotated through our station. We also got to meet with their parents and AVHS staff as they circled around. We also invited our other robotics teams from the high school of which Regal Kiwis and Attack on Robot replied to and attended alongside with us. This was an amazing event because we were able to interact and engage with the community while also promoting STEM programs at our school.

 

 

 

On June 3rd, we attended the Makers Faire for the third year in a row. At the event, we demoed our Velocity Vortex robot, Duchess Steele, as well as helped run a “robot dog” built by High Tech Kids (the organization that runs FTC in Minnesota). In addition, we pulled out our Ollies for the kids to play with. We met many people at the fair and the kids absolutely loved the robots, especially the dog as they would run around following it and pat its head. We talked and passed out brochures to people who were interested in learning more about robotics, as we do at all events that we attend and had a lot of fun seeing the other cool things that the Makers Faire has to offer.

 

 

 

On June 29th, we were invited once again by the Galaxie Library to help with one of their Snap Circuit events. This was a very cool opportunity because we also attended a Snap Circuits event at the library last season, so it was nice to be invited back once again. Being one of our smaller events, we got to work one-on-one with kids in putting together “Snap Circuit” kits that could do a variety of things including turning on lights, spinning fans, and so much more. We also brought our Ollies, which greatly excited the kids, and allowed them to drive them around a terrain. This was a huge success!

 

 

On July 27th, We drove to Eagan to visit the Wescott Library. We were invited by the FIRST Eagan Robotics team and demonstrated our robot with a couple of little Ollies to the different ages of kids, who were interested in FIRST. The adults came by and asked many different types of questions from who we are as a team, what school we go to, and our encounter with Robotics. It was the first time event Lisa and Heaven had went to. They had a blast and experienced how to communicate with adults, talking, and giving information about what STEM is in our school and FIRST. Our entire goal was to talk to everyone about how STEM helps the community teach kids a wider range of education, teaches them real-life skills, and lets them explore many more opportunities as they grow older.

 

 

On August 24th, we drove to the Minnesota State Fair. We were invited by High Tech Kids (the Minnesota affiliate partner for FTC) to attend and demonstrate our robot. It was STEM Day at the State Fair, so we introduced robotics and FIRST to parents and interested kids who stopped by our station. We showed the children how to work the robot and how to shoot the particles into the baskets. We brought our demo Ollie robots as well to show the public. Additionally, some of our members volunteered with High Tech Kids, running a FIRST LEGO League table. We played a lot of games to help the kids interact with each other and the game elements. This was a great opportunity to make an appearance in the public and help High Tech Kids recruit students from across Minnesota.

 

 

 

During the week of the Minnesota State Fair, our robotics team was asked to present and demonstrate our robot to a crowd of people in the Education Building. Five of our members came, with two working the event for several days. We were one of two FIRST Tech Challenge teams participating and had three separate demos throughout the day as well as bringing our robot to march in a parade that marched around the entire fairgrounds. We talked a lot about the FIRST program as a whole and answered questions from the audience the entire time.

 

On August 30th, a few of our members went to Echo Park Elementary School to help out at their Back-to-School Night to help represent the STEM pathway of schools in District 196, which now includes Echo Park (in addition to Valley Middle School and Apple Valley High School). We were stationed in Echo Park’s new STEM workspace, along with several other people who were showing off fun robots and technology for kids to play with, such as snap-circuits and robots called “Dash” from Wonder Workshop. We showed kids how to position and aim Spheros, how to drive them around, and even how to change their color. We also answered questions that parents had about robotics, and we played promotional videos for Valley Middle School and Apple Valley High School. The event was super fun and energetic in addition to being a fabulous opportunity to interact with the public and continue a four year relationship with Echo Park Elementary, who we have been visiting multiple times each year since our rookie season.

 

On September 4th, Emily was asked to visit the Ampers radio booth in the Education Building of the Minnesota State Fair. Ampers’ goal is to create diverse radio broadcasts for Minnesota’s communities. The radio host stated that he wanted to talk to people that he had seen at the State Fair in an effort to highlight some of the unique educational opportunities in Minnesota. Emily sat down to a live radio broadcast where she detailed a bit about her experiences in robotics. She spoke with the radio host about FIRST robotics in the Minnesota areas and gender stereotypes that she had noticed in students throughout her three previous years being on a robotics team; she explained that girls lose interest in STEM and robotics as soon as they get into high school, which causes a lack of female STEM professionals. She went on to explain that this is exactly the reason to continue to promote STEM and robotics through outreach. The radio host described gender stereotypes that he had seen in children’s toys, and asked a few more questions about robotics and being a female involved in robotics.

 

 

 

On September 23rd, some of our team members joined several other FIRST Tech Challenge teams in presenting at Girls Time at the Works Museum. This was our fourth year demoing at this event and we ran our robot as well as allowed kids to drive our Ollies around. Many kids came through to learn about robotics and had to ask one question about the program in order to earn a stamp. This was a really fun event, because we were able to directly interact with the community and show young children what’s so cool about STEM.