Reaching Out...

One of the most integral components of the program is spreading the word! Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST, assigned us homework this year: he wants every team to reach out and educate their community. But what does it mean to reach out to the community? How can you accomplish this? Why should you even bother? Look no further, Einstein’s Daughters are here to help.

What Does It Mean To Reach Out?

FIRST awards the Connect Award to the team that “connected with their local community and the engineering community . . . recognized that their schools and communities play an essential part to their success . . . recognized for helping the community understand FIRST, the FIRST Tech Challenge, and the team itself. In addition, the team that wins this award is aggressively seeking engineers and exploring the opportunities available in the world of engineering, science, and technology.”

Why Reach Out?

FIRST started out as a small program, but has grown tremendously in the past years. Now it’s stretches from coast to coast, and has reached most countries outside the US! The excitement of FIRST is spreading, but there is still so much room to grow. By reaching out to your community, you are giving more people the chance to find out and get involved. Today’s participants are tomorrow’s engineers, scientists and inventors, and by educating the community you are making a better world for tomorrow. And by reaching out to the engineering community, you can learn lots about the opportunities available to you and glean valuable information.

Here are the ED Easy-As-Pie Steps on How to Make Your Community Event a Success!

1) Find a place to reach out. Is there a local community event? We’ve been to fairs, Fourth of July Day, parks, and FRC competitions. Contact the organizer and find out if you can host a booth. Could you visit a local school? Contact the administration. Many schools would be ecstatic to have a robotics team visit. Research more events that you could take part in.

2) Determine your audience. Are you going to be in an elementary school classroom, talking to seven year olds? Will there be a variety of ages? Find out. Then plan accordingly. We found that many kids were frustrated with our complex robot, so we built basic small bots for them to drive and still get introduced to the program.

3) Work with the theme. For example, we exhibited at an egg hunt, so we made ‘Bunny Bots’ by decorating our basic bots with ears, faces and tails. Then we had the kids push around plastic Easter eggs. This was a hit with the kids and adults alike!

4) Be Prepared. Will you need to make a speech? Practice ahead of time. Have basic information about FIRST and the program memorized for any eager participants. Also, there are some things you will need if you are hosting an event. Modify for your team!

To Any Event, Bring…
-Fliers (with the FIRST website and your contact info) for eager participants
-Your competition robot (a picture is worth a thousand words… a bot is worth a million!)
-Field components (i.e. rings and platforms) to demonstrate
-Knowledge to answer questions. Have the basic info about all four of the FIRST platforms. (Many younger kids wanted to know about JFLL and FLL at our events!)
-Your teammates
-A camera (make sure to write about the event in your engineering notebook!)

Are You Hosting a Booth? Remember…
-Tables and Chairs
-A sign to reel in visitors
-Something exciting: Before we’ve had a raffle, food for sale, and more. This got lots of people to come to our booth!

Are You Giving Kids the Opportunity to Drive? Remember…
-Basic Bots
-Remotes and Tethers or Crystals
-Extra batteries
-Equipment for Repairs
-A Field
-Your competition bot (kids love how complex it is!)

If you want to see what we have done, visit the community outreach section of this site.

And good luck! Remember, not every event is a success. Learn from your mistakes and try again! If you need help with the planning of your event, feel free to contact us. We’d be more than happy to offer advice and assistance.

How To Reach Out to the Engineering Community

This one seems easy compared to your events! Write a letter about your team and FIRST and send it out! Ask your parents if they have any engineering friends. Post it in colleges (we had a college student come talk to us!). Ask professors. We found names of engineering companies online and contacted them as well. Have them come to your meetings. Let them know whatever they can do to help is appreciated! And be sure to thank them for their time!