Outreach
One of the main endeavors of FIRST and the RoboEagles is to spread and promote STEM education and to instill core values, such as Gracious Professionalism®, into the community. To support the endeavor of FIRST and to pursue our personal goal, we have taken upon ourselves to teach the ones around us about the upcoming fields of STEM. While doing this, we incorporate core values into anything we do, spreading the messages of Coopertition® and Gracious Professionalism® as well. We have multiple means of doing this, which includes attending outreach events, hosting robotics camps and parties, and much more!
RoboCamps
RoboCamps are one of the RoboEagles’ signature programs. Each summer the team holds half-day camps that simulate the FLL season for the campers over the course of a week. Each day the counselors have the campers engage themselves by a short session of teaching, and a longer period of exploration. The counselors all have large experience with FLL, and love teaching. Last year, the team collaborated with a sponsor, GradePower Learning to host the camps. The team is now expanding to do Thanksgiving and Christmas break camps. The RoboEagles love working with the campers, and they have loved the camps throughout the years. We currently opened a sign up to our Mathnasium Camps that we will be hosting this summer. For more information, please visit: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CLUuV2Am2-jimvw7lyLMZUgD_ZKnde2w/view?usp=sharing .
To signup, please visit: https://goo.gl/forms/UWI4K76H57Lf9aol1 .
Mentorship
In the past years, our team has helped mentor and form new FRC teams. Just as veteran teams helped us in our first few years, we spread the same message and guide rookie teams. This year, we have continued to mentor rookie teams, and help these teams grow by starting outreach events and assisting in technical issues. These teams have grown from our mentorship as well as their own ambition and perseverance, spreading the message of teamwork and unity. Thanks to the No Robot Left Behind program, the RoboEagles promise to continually support all younger teams they begin via mentorship.
Duke
An alumni RoboEagle at Duke, who works with international groups, put us in contact with a group of 30 elementary and middle schoolers from China who came to the United States for the first time. We organized a workshop with Duke University and spent several hours working with Lego Robotics over the week. When the students returned, one of the Roboeagles kept in contact and helped them start their own junior robotics teams. The students were inspired to start 3 new FLL teams and will compete in the 2018 competition.
Homecoming
Homecoming is just one of the many areas where the RoboEagles have shown their enthusiasm to spread interest in robotics. The team has showcased their robot to the homecoming pep rally at Enloe High School for multiple years. Each year, Talon (our 2013 robot) shoots frisbees into the student body, and many of those who caught them are now members of the RoboEagles.
Robotics Curriculum
After the RoboEagles helped one of their sponsors develop an online Mind Mapping course, the RoboEagles worked with a teacher at Enloe High School to develop a curriculum for a class that uses VEX Robotics. It is an Honors-level class in which students learn the basics of robotics, including the foundations of programming, strategies for designing and prototyping, and the importance of collaboration in building projects. They Stualso learn more hard skills such as how to calculate gear ratios and how to build certain elements of a robot.
Engineering Club/Technology Student Association
A RoboEagle chose to start the Engineering Club at his high school. He wanted to teach his peers the principles of engineering and design, which they could apply in real world scenarios to create devices which can help increase the quality of human lives across the world. He chose to join this robotics team for the same reason, to teach other students ways to build an effective robot, while incorporating aspects of teamwork and friendship along with science and technology.
Music Fundraiser
The Roboeagles are so much more than engineers. In order to combine their passion for robotics and music, a group of Roboeagles organized an annual fundraiser concert in which musicians and ‘roboticians’ come together with family and friends for a night of fun.
Girl Scouts Of America
The Roboeagles continue their ongoing effort to conjoin FIRST with organizations that may not be STEM-oriented by partnering with the Girl Scouts of America. The Roboeagles held workshops with several brownie troops and taught them to build, program, and showcase a robot that helped them work towards a badge. By the end, the girls were able to make a Lego Mindstorm robot and program it to play a song!
Boys Club
The one thing all the students at the Boys Club have in common was their love for robotics; and that is what makes them a team. The Boys Club RoboBoys 11623, is an FLL team created by the Boys Club in Raleigh. Students from the RoboEagles began teaching and mentoring the students, when the team expressed the need for more mentors. This year, for the first time, the RoboBoys made it to the States competition.
Read To Lead
In 2015, Roboeagles partnered with an organization with NC State University called Read to L.E.A.D (Learn. Engage. Ask. Do.). As promoters of STEM, the RoboEagles work to ensure that the members of Read to L.E.A.D can do just those things. They are sharing a STEM curriculum to local after-school programs in Raleigh as well as with students in India.
Summer Camps (Mathnasium/ SAS)
The RoboEagles have created week-long summer camps that promote the ideals of STEM to middle, elementary, and homeschooled students who might not have otherwise gotten exposed to the field. Campers are taught how to build and use Lego mindstorms robots. They are also given real-life problems, ranging from space travel to clean energy, that they must solve.
50 Adults
The Raleigh Chamber of Commerce holds an annual Leadership Raleigh 35 Education Day. At this event, companies and businesses from all over the Raleigh area spend the day learning about the new programs in grade school. Many of these companies and businesses fund these programs. Last year, the Roboeagles shared their Honors Robotics curriculum with the group and were able to outreach with several of the companies individually throughout the year and beyond.