FIRST Ladies - Blog

Greater Pittsburgh Regional Webinar

4/25/2020

On March 26, 2020 Girls of Steel hosted a FIRST Ladies event: a Women in STEM Panel Webinar on Zoom. We originally wanted to hold this event in person at the Greater Pittsburgh Regional, but due to the COVID-19 pandemic the event was postponed. We decided that we still wanted to hold the event, so we invited the panelists and guests to join us online.

People pre-registered and submitted their questions. Participants ranged from elementary students to adults from about 20 different FLL, FTC, and FRC teams. On the day of the webinar, our 4 panelists joined us and answered the viewers’ questions. We were excited to see that there were nearly 50 people watching and participating in the webinar. Our speakers included Aubrey Kalashian, a graduate student at CMU, Brianna Watt, an information technologist at Aurora Innovation, Elizabeth Amato, a software engineer at Google, and Dr. Zeynep Temel, an assistant professor at the Robotics Institute at CMU. You can find the recorded webinar here and our speaker bios are available here.

This blog was written by Aeryn A. And Samhita G. from FRC 3504 Girls of Steel Robotics. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!

A Change in Perspective on Female Involvement in FIRST

3/15/2020

Team 6947 Savage Tumaz was the first team in Taiwan to receive the honor in becoming FIRST Ladies official partner in 2019.

Before entering FIRST, I’ve always been concerned about people’s expectations for females in the STEM field. However, my experiences, being part of the FIRST community, assured me that I no longer had to be worried about other people’s opinions towards female FRC participants like me. At the beginning, being overlooked or looked down at was inevitable, but people in FIRST love providing opportunities for everyone to enjoy their time participating in FRC. Gaps between female members and the rest of the team and the community starts to narrow as members start to familiarize with each other, understand each other’s passion for STEM, and contribute to making our team better as a whole. Especially when everyone is devoted to a new project, your ethnicity, race, and age no longer matter. We spend time together on the same project, believe in each other’s abilities, and consider everyone’s thoughts in order for us to reach our common goal.

As a female freshman in FIRST, I’ve been able to work with my team and enjoy my time during club classes, building season, as well as competitions. The FIRST community helps us to go beyond our expectations for ourselves. It provides us with more opportunities to increase our confidence as we build trust in each other’s capabilities. During my first year of being a member of team 6947 Savage Tumaz as both a freshman and a female member, I was surprised by the fact that my team believed in me more than I did: I received a major role in our business team and joined the drive team as the operator of the robot. These experiences were brand new for me, and I really appreciate how my team saw so much potential in me. I’m glad I made the choice to become part of FIRST.

Last December, our team held our first FIRST Ladies seminar. We invited Demei Lee, a distinguished female robotics professor, to be our guest speaker. Professor Lee shared with us her experience in the STEM field and the challenges that female students interested in STEM may face. We then spent time to exchange thoughts with many female leaders from different FRC teams, including many teams which have just started their teams this year. The increase of female involvement in FIRST, evident from the amount of female participants in our seminar, has given me more opportunities to learn from great minds and more confidence that females have the potential to be just as competent as males or even surpass them in STEM fields.

This blog was written by Serena C. from FRC 6947 Savage Tumaz. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!

How FIRST has impacted our teams

3/6/2020

The slogan, “FIRST is more than robots” sounds false to first-year teams. However, upon reflection of all that I have accomplished during the last six years, I have come to realize that this slogan is more than true. Through participation in FIRST programs, I have acquired skills other than building robots, that will impact me for the rest of my life. The biggest way that FIRST has improved my life is through public speaking. At a FIRST competition, you have to be outgoing and talkative to do well. This has led me to improve my public speaking and my ability to talk to people in general. After talking to some members of the Flourish & Bots project, I realized that FIRST has impacted people in different ways.
I talked to Aditi N. on Flourish & Bots FTC 12863 to get her input on this topic. Aditi has been involved with FIRST for six years and has been on Flourish & Bots teams for five years. Aditi has been able to communicate with her peers more and has ‘come out of her shell’ after being involved with FIRST. She has also learned a lot of skills that she would not have learned anywhere else, such as soldering and learning how to build different types of mechanisms on the robot. With all this knowledge she has acquired, Aditi wants to pursue a degree in mechanical engineering. FIRST has impacted Aditi’s life and will continue to impact her life in the future.
I also asked a younger girl how FIRST has impacted her life so far. This girl is Brie H. on Flourish & Bots FLL 2838. Brie is a second-year member of Flourish & Bots and this is also her second year in FIRST. During these two years, Brie has seen a significant change in how she interacts with others. Being on a team of 10 girls can be difficult at times but Brie managed to compromise with them and learn how to work well with her peers. This has translated to how Brie works with her peers at school, on sports teams, and at clubs. Brie has also noticed that she is a more confident young woman now than she was prior to being involved in FIRST. Overall, because of her time in FLL, Brie has developed valuable leadership and teamwork skills that she would not have acquired if it was not for FIRST.
The last girl I talked to is one who has been on the Flourish & Bots teams for 4 years. She is Emily R. on Flourish & Bots FLL 38323. Emily is a fourth-year member of the Flourish & Bots project. Through her involvement in FIRST she has met a lot of new people and made new connections with girls from different schools. Her communication skills have also greatly improved and she is able to voice her opinion more often after being involved with FIRST.
No matter how, FIRST has impacted every person that has been through one of its programs. This may be improved confidence, new connections made, or learning about different career paths. No matter what the impact is on a person, FIRST will always affect someone’s life.

This blog was written by FTC 12863 Flourish and Bots. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!

Reflections on a Gender Minorities in FTC Event: Six Months Later

3/1/2020

Last spring my team, Nighthawk Robotics 11943, organised what we termed a Women and Gender Minorities in FTC event. As students at an all-girls school we had a unique perspective upon arriving to FTC. Our team is made up of students who were all assigned female at birth and, as we competed, we realized that our team was always “the girls team” or “that girls school”. We found ourselves resenting being called “ladies” at competitions and how officials use of the term carried over into other teams language and behaviour toward us. When we went to FIRST Splash (an event hosted by NYC FIRST that consists of FTC workshops) at the beginning of the season, we were able to unload our frustrations around being at a girls school and pursuing STEM. We found ourselves searching for other faces at competitions and wishing that we could have a space to talk about our experiences, were we the only ones affected? By that spring, we organised and hosted our first Gender Minorities in FTC event. It was billed as a night of conversation and dinner with a keynote speaker. We worked closely with building staff to find a date, secure space, and have the ability to feed our guests. Independently of this we tried to create fun FTC/STEM related activities as icebreakers for our event, eventually landing on FTC themed Pictionary. Our members used our usual work time to draft schedules for the event, order catering, and contact gender minorities on other teams.
When the day finally arrived, we had a greater than expected turnout with over thirty attendees. Our keynote speaker was our coach, Mr Watson’s, professor for his graduate program, Dr Sandra Okita. Dr Okita brought with her several of her female engineering graduate students and they talked about their journey as women in STEM and how they got into the field. Afterwards, we ate dinner (pizza and salad) while introducing ourselves and playing FTC-themed Pictionary. After dinner we cut our cake, frosted with the phrase “Graciously Professional STEMinists”, and started our discussion. We soon realized that our discussion questions weren’t working well and decided to operate a more free form discussion. One attendee spoke about how although she was captain other teams would approach one of her male teammates for questions related to the robot even after she identified herself at the team captain.Others spoke about how people assumed that they worked on the business end of the team as opposed to the programming and engineering side. All in all, we view the event as a resounding success for the first time.
As we look to hold our second event, renamed “Gender Minorities in FTC” to be more trans-inclusive, we are re-examining our previous one. The main changes we made are to the name and the time allotted to our keynote. We felt that last year our speakers took up too much of the time and, to stay on schedule, we had to condense other parts of our event. A few of our team members, who do not identify as female, felt a little alienated by the name. We also realized that our name might exclude those who identify as trans masculine and, as they are also gender minorities, we wanted to be explicit about their inclusion. All of these changes are
being incorporated to create a less formal atmosphere and a more free flowing discussion. As we continue competing and collecting emails of those who are interested, we are constantly keeping an eye on how to improve our event from last year. See you in the spring!

This blog was written by Erica J from FTC 11943 Nighthawk Robotics. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!

The Flourish & Bots Project

3/1/2020

At the Arconic Learning Center on a Sunday morning, you can find 8 girls building and programming a robot in one room, another 10 girls building and programming a different robot, 10 girls working on business management, 12 girls building a lego model, and 2-3 girls coaching them all. This is the Flourish & Bots project. This group is comprised of one FTC team, two FLL teams, and three FLL Jr. teams. You may be asking yourself- “how did this come to be?”- to answer this, we have to go back to 2015. This was a magical year, the year when Flourish & Bots was first formed. Their coach, Theresa Barber, saw an influx of girls interested in robotics from the years 2013-2014. She coached the FLL teams at a local elementary school and during these years, had 11 girls on 2 different teams. Once these teams’ seasons ended, Barber chose to create a super team with these girls (one of them moved so there were the maximum 10 girls on the team). Thus Flourish & Bots was born. This team competed in FLL for 2 years before outgrowing the program and moving onto FTC. When we moved onto FTC, we decided to start an FLL team and two FLL Jr. teams as part of our outreach for FTC. Also, to share our knowledge of FIRST and FLL with younger girls. Going into our second season of FTC, we decided to add another FLL team and another FLL Jr. team to our program to accommodate all of the girls that wanted to be involved in this program. This leads us to what the Flourish & Bots project looks like today.
So far, over 50 girls have been impacted by this program and this number will continue to grow. This all started when 10 girls wanted to be on another FIRST team after competing in FLL for one year. The Flourish & Bots Project lets girls work together to accomplish tasks that most girls don’t get to do on a co-ed team. This program empowers girls and shows them that they have the magic within them to do anything.

Flourish & Bots: FTC 12863, FLL 2838, FLL 38323

This blog was written by FTC 12863 Flourish and Bots. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!

An Interview with Pratima Gluckman

2/19/2020

This past March, Girls of Steel (GoS), along with Carnegie Mellon University, had the honor of hosting author and engineering leader Pratima Gluckman for several events, including our Greater Pittsburgh Regional FIRST Ladies Meetup! The experience was extremely influential on GoS and FIRST community members, as she inspired us to be strong and pursue our dreams.

On March 20, 2019, Pratima met with members of Women@SCS during lunch, and later spoke with GoS members at a special team meeting about her journey to becoming a leader at VMware, where she works with Blockchain programming. Using her challenges and setbacks as examples, she shared with GoS members the meaning of persistence and bravery, encouraging us to speak up for ourselves and acknowledge our value in any situation. The stories and statistics that she presented moved and inspired us all to be more assertive and forward-minded. More stories of inspirational women in tech can be found in her book, Nevertheless, She Persisted, where Pratima interviewed 19 female technology leaders to raise awareness of the need for diversity in the tech industry, especially in her home of Silicon Valley.

That same day, two GoS members interviewed Pratima at CMU, where they asked her more about her experiences as a leader and journey through writing her book. The interview can be found here!

Pratima also traveled to California, PA for the Greater Pittsburgh Regional at California University on March 21, 2019, where she spoke at our FIRST Ladies meetup. She shared her experience as a leader in the STEM field (at VMware), as well as her journey to becoming such a vocal advocate for women in STEM. Pratima emphasized the values of persistence, bravery, and supportive mentorship as well as the importance of increasing the number of women in c-suite positions in Fortune 500 companies, a field in which women are extremely underrepresented currently. Everyone felt motivated after hearing a strong female role model discuss her empowering insights at the meetup.

We all feel very inspired and moved by her work and journey. We highly encourage everyone to read her book and listen to her podcast, both found at pratimagluckman.com. On behalf of GoS and the FIRST Ladies community, we thank Pratima for visiting us and sharing her expertise and experience!

Here is a link to the live video:
https://youtu.be/XtEJLcNoWQA

This blog was written by Anna and Norah from FRC 3504 Girls of Steel Robotics. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!

Being a Female in FIRST

2/19/2020

By: Michaela S.
Everyday life as a female in FIRST provides us with opportunities that can not be found elsewhere. A yearly event, IndyRage, is an all females off-season competition, hosted by FRC Team Cyber Blue 234. At this competition, the drive team MUST be all female. IndyRage is a great event for people to become more comfortable with positions on the team that are not normally open to them. With all of the opportunities provided to females on the field, some teams return to old habits in their pits. As a member of team 1792 Round Table Robotics, we pride ourselves in not having a single male in our pit at IndyRage. We used IndyRage not to win, but to have fun and to widen our knowledge. All of us got to do every position on the team. As an operator, it was my first time controlling the robot. I spent the entire match stressing for the end-climb. As the driver lined up for the climb, my hands shook in anticipation. I practiced the order so often that it rang in my head: right trigger, left bumper, left trigger, left bumper, left trigger. The switch from left trigger to left bumper was such a quick switch my finger switched. I looked up from the controller to see our robot fall to its right and fall back. We all inhaled sharply as we saw the middle bar protruding at a painful angle. After the match, we rushed the robot back to our pit and immediately began running tests. After minutes that felt like years crawling by, the middle bar was set back into place. At this moment I realized that being on the drive team is very stressful and also very rewarding. Without IndyRage and other events that allow females to try different positions, we do not get the full experience of a competition.

By: An H
As a female in FIRST, we sometimes get overlooked. However, when we dedicate ourselves to a project, we get our moment to shine. These common goals bring us together as a community. Every year, to grow our community of females in FIRST, Round Table Robotics attends an all-girls offseason event called Indy Rage. My first experience at Indy Rage was when I was a freshman, and it was life-changing. Competing with a large number of females made me feel like I belonged, and wasn’t as intimidating as being surrounded by a bunch of guys towering over me. As a freshman, typically students don’t really get opportunities to touch the robot or use more advanced tools. Despite this, at Indy Rage, I was able to do more than I’d originally thought. I was a part of the drive team and got to help more in the pit instead of just cheering in the stands. IndyRage was an event that radiates female pride and being proud of who you are as a person. Indy Rage promises an opportunity to show off what you can do, instead of being overshadowed by the opposite gender. Due to empowering events like Indy Rage, it’s a little easier for me to put myself out there and get involved. I’ve become more social with everyone and less fearful of trying new things; I can only thank the girls on my team. I’m proud to be a female in FIRST.

This blog was written by Michaela and An from FRC 1792 Round Table Robotics . If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!

A testament to the womxn and gender minorities in the robotics community:

2/2/2020

I’m a fifth-year FIRST participant. This is my second year on my high school’s FIRST Robotics Competition team. I spent three years in FIRST Tech Challenge, one year in FIRST LEGO League, and was part of FIRST Global Team USA in 2018.

My role is primarily non-technical—in FIRST Robotics Competition, I’m part of our Business subteam, responsible for fundraising and outreach; in FIRST Tech Challenge, I ran the outreach program, engineering notebook, and awards-related endeavors.

And, especially over the years in FIRST Tech Challenge, I am intimately familiar with gameplay and strategy...but in that arena, I am all too used to being overlooked.

As almost any girl or gender minority in the robotics community will tell you, at tournaments—particularly high level competitions like the World Championships—we are all too often subject to the assumption that we aren’t as technically or strategically inclined as our male team members. And it’s incredibly nuanced: it’s the little things, like when a representative from your next round alliance partner comes to your pit to ask about strategy, but approaches a male team member in your pit first; it’s when in a meeting with your elims alliance, you propose a strategy that is dismissed with merely a condescending look but is then, five minutes later, asserted by a male member of your team or another...and then it’s discussed.

So what does this do? To the girl who enters robotics from a very young age, this implicit sexism becomes internalized, to the point where even in a wholesome and supportive team environment, she becomes the one marginalizing herself the most. She equates her value to what others perceive it to be, which is often not what it truly is.

To gender minorities participating in robotics: know that you are not alone in your experiences, and know that this is not a climate that should be normalized. And if you feel like you don’t have people around you who will support you if you try to discuss challenges you’ve experienced, I can be your people; FIRST Ladies can be your people.

To the gender minorities in this activity who speak up for equity: a large part of my understanding of sexism in the robotics community comes from your advocacy. Thank you for all you do to promote active discourse and understanding.

To the gender minorities on drive teams: you have all of my respect for holding your own on a technical level both within your own teams and in front of other teams, who continuously question our competence.

And to our femxle coaches and mentors: thank you for being positive role models. You are a beacon of light that illuminates the path to achieve success in a male-dominated environment.

This blog was written by Anika from FRC 449 The Blair Robot Project . If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!

K-12 Robotics education

1/11/2020

I have a strong bias: I think every child in America should receive a K12 education that includes both technology and engineering - in the regular classroom. K12 education provides the foundational skills from which students choose their careers and in today’s world, a foundational education must include all the ingredients of STEAM, Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.

I have visited with many teachers who say their school district provides STEAM education, only to find that the school offers technology and engineering as optional high school classes or there is an optional after-school competitive robotics team. Most K12 schools in my area provide computers to all students, but are not providing technology and engineering education for all students. Does your local school say they teach STEAM, but instead they provide S(science) A(arts) M(mathematics) education for all students and T(technology) and E(engineering) for some (or none)?

Did you know that there are high quality technology and engineering educational materials readily available for students of all ages? Take a look at the reusable robotics competition kits from FIRST LEGO®️ League (FLL). Each year a new competition is released. Teams not only design and build a sensor based, programmable robot, but they also complete a science based research and design project. FLL competitions include engineering, technology, creativity, reading, writing, science, mathematics, problem-solving, presentations and team-work. Each year, FLL provides a well-developed, 100% reusable, project-based STEAM education, in a kit. Past FLL competition kits are often sitting on a shelf or in storage. These kits could be directly incorporated into project based classrooms or traditional schools that don’t have project based classes, could include a STEAM class (with robotics) in the rotation for art, music and gym.

Another option for STEAM is reuse of FIRST or VEX IQ competition kits. These competition kits are partially reusable, partially consumable. The base robots, the competition field and themed challenge can be reused, but modifications to the robots will result in additional supply budget each time the class is run. A required section of STEAM shop class is often feasible for eighth graders. During competition season, students might not learn both technology and engineering, but when FIRST and VEX IQ are taught in the classroom, all of the technology and engineering components become required for all students.

Not interested in classrooms with FLL, FIRST or VEX? Pick another quality robotics program. Be careful in your selection: inclusion of robots does not mean inclusion of technology and engineering. Look for robots that include a strong engineering component and also have a requirement for every student to learn programming with interactive sensors. A quality STEAM robotics curriculum will also embed strong educational components for reading, writing, math and science. Finances can be a concern for schools, so I recommend intentional selection of robots that can be reused.

Problems to overcome to see STEAM in the K12 classroom:

K12 teachers often don’t have technology and engineering training. Maybe teachers could attend summer robotics camps like the one at CMU’s Robotics Academy, or check out Birdbrain technologies and their Reading List.
I found only a few universities that offer technology and engineering for all K12 teachers, there may be some universities including technology and engineering for all K12 teachers? Changing teacher training would make a huge difference.
Do your administrators value STEAM education for all students? Administrators are often key to requiring STEAM for all.

Can K12 SAM (Science, Arts and Mathematics) education be upgraded to K12 STEAM education? We already provide K12 students with competitive robotics, but until public schools teach STEAM for all, we have technology and engineering for some. Schools need to provide all kids with a foundational STEAM education. Share what you know. Get involved. Together we can move our educational system from: SAM for all and STEAM for some--->STEAM for all.

This blog was written by Christine, a volunteer and judge at FIRST events. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!

The Importance of Active Women Mentors

1/4/2020

A decision to become a mentor, is a decision to change lives. By looking back, it is clear that a couple of small decisions changed the course of my life and the lives of those around me. A simple decision to take a programming class in high school, started a chain of events that led me to become the robotics mentor I am today.

I grew up in a large family and it was difficult for my parents to juggle their myriad of responsibilities with our many requests for afterschool and weekend activities. It was impossible for all of us to go in different directions at the same time; as a result, our opportunities primarily came through “extra” classes offered at school or things we could with family or friends. The school made a small decision to have a math teacher offer computer programming. In tenth grade, I took that class and found that programming was a challenging and fun way to combine two things that came naturally to me: math and art. The school’s decision + my decision = I pursued a career as a computer programmer.

Fast forward a few years, I realized that the school my children attended had a lot of technology: computers for typing, drawing and learning Excel: but, no technology or engineering classes! I looked for something that would provide the missing T and E from my kids STEM education and found it: competitive robotics. There was one small problem: there were funds for after school robotics, but no robotics teacher. I made a decision: I volunteered.

Many years have passed and I have continued to be involved in robotics. As a woman, I have noticed that many robotics teams are missing a valuable asset: girls! Robotics is amazing, creative, fun and enjoyable: why would any girl choose to miss out? The more I observe, the more I wonder if girls are consciously choosing to miss out or if they simply lack the right opportunities….

It has been my observation that robotics teams with good female involvement are a direct result of one or more of these decisions:

The school requires all students to learn robotics in a regular classroom. An area school teaches a semester of VEX robotics to all eighth grade students during shop class: their shop teacher also coaches the FIRST robotics team. The male/female ratio on the FIRST team is the same as the male/female ratio of their average classroom.
Another area school has good male/female ratio's. They don’t require robotics, but they run two teams: boys (male coach) and girls (female coach).
As a general rule, I have noted that any competitive team that has at least one women working alongside the team in the pits, that team usually has 50% or more females.

Until K12 schools provide technology and engineering education to all students, women can make some small decisions that will have a huge impact. One way is to become involved in a quality robotics program. A word of caution, not all robotics are created equal and a decision to purchase robots doesn’t automatically result in STEM education any more than a school that purchases a lot of technology is guaranteed to provide quality technology education! I have mentored five different robotics programs and highly recommend FRC, FLL, FIRST and VEX: all of them have quality robots and excellent educational curriculum.

If you want a change at your school, it will take some work. Although a well-rounded robotics program is very educational and includes technology, engineering, problem solving, reading, writing and mathematics, many schools don't know what they are missing. If you can influence your school to include robotics for all, I recommend they consider using FIRST robots and educational curriculum, it starts as young as preschool. Another quality robotics education is available through VEX IQ.

Whether you work in a school or in a club: share your experiences with others. Encourage other women to become mentors alongside you. Choose to become actively involved in making tomorrow better for ALL of our kids - girls included!

This blog was written by Christine a volunteer and judge at FIRST events. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!