Outreach

Over our tenure in FTC, we spread the importance of FIRST Robotics and served various museums and library in the Greater San Diego Area. Our team was fortunate to serve EXPO Day, Fleet Science Museum, Space Day, Miramar Airshow, Rancho Penasquitos, Mira Mesa, Rancho Bernardo, and Carmel Valley Library.

At our venues, most of our audience consists of parents and young kids. At the venues, we showcase our old EV3 robots and show the kids the basic features of the EV3 robot and how to use it. We show them how to turn the robot forwards and backwards and show them how all the sensors work. Many parents and kids showed interest in learning more about robotics and we encouraged many of them to join FLL/FTC/FRC.

Currently, we have a joint partnership with Team Keep It Simple as we aim to teach the younger generation and parents the importance of robotics. We hold sponsored-library events and challenge kids to build an attachment that latches onto the EV3 robots and complete a task of pushing a windmill. All of the kids are able to pass our challenge and seem passionate into continuing their journey into robotics through FLL.

In the future, we hope to spread our outreach efforts in the lower education areas in San Diego but also spread our knowledge internationally. In the future, we are holding a robotics merit badge session for kids in Troop 782 and other Boy Scout Troops to learn the basics of robotics including building, programming, and team-bonding.

Below look at a list of our past outreach events:

past outreach events

Carmel Valley Library

During our first session at the library, we weren't sure what to expect in terms of how many people would show up. The reservation was intended to be public, but it turned out to be private. Since no one else was there, we had to do our own marketing and bring several kids into the library. In the end, it wasn't too bad as 20 people showed up to listen to what we had to say. We demonstrated robotics to the kids and parents and showcased our past FLL Robots.

Mira Mesa Library

At our 2nd session at the library, we did some our marketing beforehand. We put a flyer on Nextdoor about our timings of our session, and people who saw the post showed up. Like last time, we gave a demo of our robot, and showed last years mission. We also talked about teams that their kid can join based on their age whether its FLL, FTC, or FRC.

Rancho Bernardo Library

During our third session at the library, we continued to market our event by putting up flyers on Nextdoor, announcing the timing of our session. As a result, more people showed up. Like last time, we provided a demo of our robot and showcased last year's mission. We also discussed the different teams that kids could join based on their age, and explained how each of those competitions would work.

Fleet Science Museum

We showcased our outreach efforts in San Diego by participating in EXPO Day, one of our biggest venues with over 2,500 people visiting our booth. Although it was exhausting, it was also a lot of fun. We exhibited our competition robot and allowed some of the older kids to control our prototype robot. Additionally, we demonstrated our EV3 robots, previous programs, and the functions of various sensors. Through this event, we were able to introduce many children to the world of robotics, and both parents and kids expressed interest in getting involved.

Building Robots with kevin

Today, Kevin invited us to his garage to learn about soldering and help with constructing his robots. It was a great experience to play with the soldering kits as it was our first time. We loved the experience Kevin shared with us and we hope we could help him and solder again!

Horace Man Middle School

Team Inspiration gladly invited us to Horace Mann Middle to help out some kids to build the LEGO Mindstorms Pathfinders Robot. There were many kids so we divided the kids into groups and rotated them into stations. To fulfill all of the time we had with them and go through most of the pages, we worked ahead and got the parts so that there would be no time wasted to find parts. We were able to build the robot with the kids and it was great to see the smile on the kids' faces.

Navy Gold

At the Navy Gold Coast Event at the San Diego Convention Center, we presented our robot at our booth along with Team Inspiration and Mechanical Advantage and saw other booths with people advertising their product. We were intrigued by how the booth was organized and we were able to gain contact with professionals at CPR Associates and G2Ops. We want to thank Mr. Kevin Bowen for this incredible experience and to be joined with others at this splendid event.

ExPo Day

Scripps Miramar Library

Team Keep It Simple invited us to a library session at the Scripps Miramar Library it was our biggest library event yet with 50+ people coming to the event. We demonstrated two of our own robots and we also showed off some of the FLL robots as most of the people who attended were less than 10 years old.

Carmel Mountain Library

At Carmel Mountain Library in June, we held a interactive robotics workshop for kids ages, 9-12 to join. Many kids came to the library mainly because of our Nextdoor advertising. One of the kids who came to our event was super energized into joining robotics and was interested in the functions of our robot which made us happy to see that we found a person who is interested in robotics.

Space Day

Space Day was one of our biggest venues and attracted over 500 people. Many kids and parents were enthusiastic over robotics and many kids were interested in driving our robots. We split up our groups and focused more of the little kids on FLL Robots and the older kids on building FLL mechanisms and driving the robot. We were happy that we were able to expose many kids and parents into the world of robotics and we hope to see them compete in robotics soon!

Expo Day

We had a great time exposing our passion of robotics to thousands of interested kids and parents. We showed the kids how to drive the robots and they were very enthusiastic towards it. On top of it, we wanted the parents to know the importance of FIRST Robotics so we directed them to the FIRST website so they know how to join/start a FIRST Team.

miramar Airshow

At the Miramar Airshow, we shared our love of robotics for thousands of kids and parents. We collaborated with another FTC Team and explained the importance of FIRST Robotics. We directed the parents to a link were they can join their kids into FLL/FTC.