FIRST Ladies
  • HOME
    • Register
  • About
    • FAQ
  • Blog
  • Promote
  • Resources
  • Contact Us
  • Store

Stem education in the classroom part 2

1/18/2021

0 Comments

 
Why aren’t all K12 schools required to teach technology and engineering as part of the core curriculum?   Recently, I became aware that all states do not require STEM, but that all of them require SM, with many allowing T & E education to be completely optional (STEM).This corresponds to multi-year studies (google/gallup) showing that many schools are not providing T & E education as a requirement.  
 
If we work together this problem can be fixed for all students across the nation.
 
If all schools in your home state do not yet offer both technology and engineering as core subjects, you can help fix the problem.  Each state's legislature (house) is responsible for developing laws that the state’s department of education must follow, so if your state doesn’t require (by law) technology and engineering for all: the legislature can and should make a law that will begin to fix the problem. 
 
It’s time that those of us who know about the problem connect with those who can fix the problem. First, get a hold of the members of your state’s legislature (House) education committee and let them know that there is a STEM education problem they need to address.  Start here: find your state’s House Education Committee members.  Contact them requesting laws to require Technology and Engineering be required throughout K12 education (primary through grade 12).
 
After contacting the House Education Committee in your home state, work with them to create T & E education laws for all students that will ensure quality T & E education for all students:  STEM for all.

​
This blog was written by Dr. Christine Bakke, Lecturer, Math, Science, and Technology Department at the University of Minnesota, Crookston. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!
0 Comments

STEM education in the classroom part 1

1/18/2021

0 Comments

 
STEM is an applied and  interdisciplinary approach to education that should incorporate four specific disciplines:  science, technology, engineering and mathematics.  While science and mathematics have well established curriculums and standards, technology and engineering standards are still in their infancy.  The US government and businesses heavily fund STEM through grants;  however grants are temporary.  To provide STEM education a school must provide classes where technology and engineering are embedded into the required curriculum.

To teach applied fields such as technology and engineering,  active, not passive, learning is best practice.  From preschool through graduation, students should be required to learn both technology and engineering.  As early as preschool, students can learn about building/creating/design (engineering) and programming (robots).   

After learning their letters, young students can start to program using tools such as MIT’s SCRATCH where teachers can easily incorporate programming into a variety of classes such as art, mathematics, reading, writing and music.  Using SCRATCH, young students can draw and animate their own sprites and backgrounds (art),  learn about coordinate systems (mathematics), animate a story (reading and writing) and play music and/or musical notes.  Early STEM education can also incorporate the engineering design process allowing students to not just make a project, but to encourage creativity as they improve their project based on feedback and testing. Many engineering projects can be found on science websites such as Science Project Ideas including building bridges to designing and flying hot air balloons.  

If a teacher is looking for a complete STEM curriculum, Lego robots have kits and materials that can be used to teach T & E alongside any and every subject from art to mathematics to reading/writing.   Lego Education Library houses a wealth of STEM resources from classroom to competition to play.

Upper education and universities also need to require both the T & E in STEM.  This can be done in many ways.  Examples of technology and engineering classes in upper K12 and colleges/universities should include the basics:  classes on web design with HTML, CSS and JavaScript,  programming languages such as Python, Swift, C#, C# and/or Unity, engineering courses such as CADD /3D printing, networking and computer hardware,  data analysis of big data such as environmental and health,  IoT designs (electrical + engineering and programming), arduinos and/or raspberry pi’s (networking, programming, electronics, design).

​
This blog was written by Dr. Christine Bakke, Lecturer, Math, Science, and Technology Department at the University of Minnesota, Crookston. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!
0 Comments

First Ladies Game Night!!!!

12/15/2020

0 Comments

 
Picture
On Friday, December 4, 2020, the FIRST Ladies subteam hosted a Game Night!  There were 26 attendees from 7 different FIRST teams, including FRC 78, 117, 2177, 3504, 3654, 4467 and FTC 9821.  Aeryn A. and Samhita G., the co-directors of FIRST Ladies, ran the event.  For the past three years we have hosted a Movie Night, but this year we changed it up and tried virtual Game Night!
Picture
They kicked the night off with an introduction to FIRST Ladies and a Women in STEM Kahoot.  Then, everyone split up into four breakout groups to play Jackbox games, Codenames, or Sketchful.  The winners of each game will receive prizes soon!  Overall, everyone in attendance had a great time. ​
Picture
Maisie, from team 2177, said, “Game Night was super fun and a great way to get together when we can’t be together in person! I loved playing Jackbox games with other women in STEM, and I hope I can participate if there’s another one!”, and Grace, from team 3654, said, “It was a fun and creative way to get to know other people in FIRST!”
Samhita and Aeryn believe the event was a success.  They would like to host another game night in the future, but for now, other FIRST teams are planning game nights as well.  Check out the “Virtual Game Night How To” document for tips.  Stay tuned to FIRST Ladies social media for announcements!
This blog was written by FRC Team 3504 Girls of Steel Robotics. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!
0 Comments

Intro to Scratch Programming Camp

12/8/2020

1 Comment

 
Picture
Picture
In light of the social distances guidelines imposed by the COVID 19 pandemic, many activities and summer plans had unfortunately been indefinitely postponed or suspended.  Seeing that there was an overwhelming number of students interested in participating in our virtual summer robotics programs, the Girls of Steel hosted its first virtual “Introduction to Scratch” workshop, a two-week long program that focused on building the fundamentals of Scratch block programming.  12 Girls of Steel mentors and 58 participants registered to collaborate through Zoom to explore Scratch- learning block programming, creating projects, and enhancing presentation and teamwork skills.
Picture
During the first week, the workshops were lecture-based, the main objective being to familiarize the students with the types and functions of each programming block (“events”, “motion”, “looks”, “sounds”, “controls”, “sensing”, “operators”).  Each student created an individual Scratch account directly linked to the Girls of Steel Scratch Classroom, where they could submit their projects for feedback from the mentors, as well as explore what their peers were working on.  Due to the large turnout of participants, students were divided into three groups, each led by a Girls of Steel student mentor, who was responsible for instructing the lectures and tutorials.   Additionally, students were able to practice and apply this knowledge by completing interactive tutorials online via Scratch.  Furthermore, during the beginning of each workshop, students collectively reviewed and evaluated themselves upon the information from the lectures learned in the previous workshop through various review games and activities, such as Kahoot and Gimkit.  Overall, by the end of the week, students mastered navigating through the Scratch programming environment and the purpose and application of each type of Scratch blocks.
Picture
For the second week, students were given the opportunity to apply the information learned during the first week to create group projects with their peers.  Students were divided into 11 teams each supervised by a Girls of Steel student mentor; in each Zoom breakout room, they worked together to complete the “animation design” project and the “video game design” project.  In the “animation design” project, students programmed a short animation; in the “video game design” project, they designed and coded an interactive game interface.  For each project, students also collaborated on a Google slides presentation that described and explained their code.  At the end of each project, students regrouped and presented their projects to the other teams and mentors, as well as ran a demonstration of their program.
Picture
Seeing the students incorporating their own unique ideas and elements into the program was certainly one of the most memorable moments of this workshop for the mentors.  One mentor said: “I did not expect such enthusiasm from the students; despite the physical barriers, it was extremely fulfilling and inspirational to see the kids express such excitement about programming.”  We were excited to receive this feedback from one of our students: “I enjoyed this workshop and the mentors; someday, I hope to be a Girls of Steel mentor, too!”  ​
Picture
This blog was written by FRC Team 3504 Girls of Steel Robotics. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!
1 Comment

FTC Qualifier Lunch

8/19/2020

0 Comments

 
In September, my team, FRC Team 8002 The Knack, became FIRST Ladies regional partners in the state of Wisconsin. For the past three years, our team has run an FTC Qualifier and at our most recent qualifier, on February 1st, we began working to spread the FIRST Ladies mission. As a part of our teams outreach, we always try to reach out in our community in one way or another. Last year, our biggest initiative was our Robotics in Wisconsin Campaign, to increase funding and the number of robotics teams in the state of Wisconsin. This year, our newest ambition was to increase the number of females in the FIRST community, especially in our state. We started out with making buttons, t-shirts, and fliers along with printing out the recommended informational materials. Our team then  met to discuss FIRST Ladies events that we wanted to complete this season. In the end, we decided that we wanted to run a FIRST Ladies “Lunch and Learn” at our qualifier. The goal of this meeting was to gather a group of FTC participants and mentors together in order to learn and discuss the involvement of females in STEM. As a part of the planning process, we decided to assemble a panel of women  involved in STEM in order to discuss how it has impacted their lives and give young girls and teams advice on increasing the female to male ratio within FIRST. It was a difficult task to determine who we wanted on our panel. In the end, we chose three females that are close with our team. The first was Rachel Hunter,  one of the founders of FIRST Ladies and an engineering student.  Second, we had one of our coaches, Kelly Kowalewski, a mechanical engineer and finally, the mother of a team member, Shalini, who works in IT. We reached out to every team that was attending our qualifier to have them sign up for the “Lunch and Learn”. Through this event, we were able to include over 50 members and participants interested in FIRST Ladies. 
On the day of the event, we had a greater turn out than we initially anticipated. We began the lunch by introducing our team members who were helping to run this event as well as the three women on the panel. They told stories of how they became involved in STEM, the impact STEM had on their lives, and their advice for young girls interested in STEM. Afterwards, we opened the floor to anyone who wanted to ask the panel questions. Through this, we were able to learn about the group attending. There were several questions, such as, “ How do I get my girl friends involved?  How do we try to keep female members involved? What is the best way to recruit new female members?” After all of the questions were answered, we closed the discussion floor and allowed individuals to ask questions that weren't answered during the group discussion. Through this, we were able to speak with other members and coaches about how their team can encourage females to join FIRST. We particularly stressed how beneficial STEM is for girls because STEM creates good leaders who are more prepared for careers in the future.  STEM holds an increasingly important role in today’s society and we believe that FIRST Ladies can make a profound impact on making females a pivotal part of that growth.
Picture
Picture
This blog was written by FRC Team 8002 The Knack. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!
0 Comments

Parent involvement in FIRST

6/27/2020

1 Comment

 
Picture
Imagine an active nurturing mom. She sets the emotional and physical tone of the household.  Her daughters feel safe around her and derive comfort from her focused attention to their needs.  Her husband does, too.  She keeps them engaged and entertained.  When they dance, she becomes their choreographer.  When they are on a field trip, she becomes their chaperone and drives them around in a minivan loaded with snacks.  
When they join the LEGO robotics team, she becomes an active team parent.  
LEGO Robotics.  This new found hobby becomes a passion for all of them.  She shifts her gears to a rookie coach
Picture
for a rookie team.  

Picture
She gathered her daughters and her friends' kids in her living room and taught them science facts through LEGO Robotics.  She took it up, not just to feed her tech passion, but also to conduct Robotics Class in a very structured way, so that it reaches out to more students.  All that they had was one robotics kit, 5 enthusiastic students gleaming with excitement and 10 super supportive parents.  Given her Computer Science background and seasoned teaching skills,  these 5 keen minds working in her living room become a State Championship bid  winning LEGO Robotics team, putting Jacksonville on the map.  5 becomes 10, 10 becomes 50 and they outgrow the size of her living room within a year!
 
Today she teaches students in her 3400 sq. ft academy and in 30 different public schools, with her strong team of staff and volunteers.
 Yes, I am that LEGO Robotics Instructor.
Picture
Picture
Wonder how I created more and more LEGO Robotics Coaches in town ?

I give Free training to more moms like me to become robotics coaches. Today, this army of robot moms teaches in almost 30 Duval county schools. These robot moms are the strong female STEM ambassadors to bring more girls and boys alike into STEM.
Picture
Picture
Not just moms, we have grandma's and grand dads becoming Robotics Coaches too.

One such Grand Dad Mr.Ken Utting, volunteered his time to help his grandson Cannon’s FLL robotics team - Shiva Atomatrons. Through Coach Ken’s guidance and connection he developed with the team, helped the team win. Last year, Atomatrons won the highest score in qualifiers, Robot Design Award and earned their bid to the State Championship in Delray Beach. And they did it again.
Picture
And were selected as one of the very few teams representing the US in the Japan Open Invitational Robotics Tournament. Unfortunately it was cancelled, due to COVID19. Although, what might have been once in a lifetime experience, for all the kids going to Japan, we celebrated our achievement at a Zoom meeting.

Perhaps the most remarkable aspect of their year’s team has been their decision to use a programming language called Python. Python is a general purpose, text based, language used by many thousands of professional programmers. It is much harder to use, but provides a much more realistic programming environment for the kids. Today, the Shiva Atomatrons team with grade 5 to 8 students are using Python for extensive programming.
We all know, Robotics is a fast track to success. What most of us don’t know is that there are 80 million dollar college scholarships available for students who take part in Robotics competitions.

Thus Robotics is a rope to pull a generation up and out of poverty.

Robotics has the power to turn one’s life 180 degrees for good!

When I met Andrew Richardson he was 16 year old, who was repeating eighth grade for the third time, which was such a demeaning experience. He was a young man with no-confidence. He started acting out, in a way that was harmful. The decision was made for him to get therapy. While he was in therapy one of the staff members at Behavioral Therapy Center, who has seen the powerful impact of robotics in her own grandson’s life, recommended Andrew to the LEGO Robotics program. They were willing to offer sponsorship to Andrew to see if he liked it.
Picture
During that month I saw potential in him and his natural ability in engineering. I decided to give him a chance and something he didn't know he wanted, a part-time job, and the responsibility that comes with the job. Thanks to the sense of purpose that robotics instilled in him, he was able to leave therapy a short time later almost a complete 180 from when he first started. That year I nudged him to join the FIRST TECH Challenge team, where students build metal robots. Parents and coaches took turns in arranging his rides. It was his first year so there was a lot to learn but he made it through the year. We even completed the hardest mission, the robot lifting itself off the ground and even got the judges award. Today I am very excited to celebrate the fact that he got accepted by Americorp Vista.

We can be the robotics coach guiding students to find their path!

Extrapolating the success of team SHIVA Atomatrons and Andrew Richardson, we want robotics to reach not just more students but ALL students. So we applied for grants and funding to provide robotics training to students in Title 1 schools. Last summer, almost 90 students from Title 1 school attended 1 week of robotics camp, free of cost for them, funded by the city of Jacksonville, in partnership with Communities in Schools of Jacksonville. It was a life changing experience for most students.

Our students are coming back as coaches to pay it forward. Team SHIVA Atomatrons and Andrew Richardson were my camp counselors sharing their joy of LEGO robotics education to 90 more students.
Picture
We are STEM role models!

All that it needs is 1 caring and responsible adult with perseverance to change a child’s life. With technology being the inevitable need of the hour, adults taking up the role as a robotics coach can put the child's path to success on a fast track. Just like how being an active dance mom or a soccer dad doesn't need you to know, all the skills, being a robotics coach is easy too.

When you believe in a child and encourage them, they can change the world.

To quote inventor Dean Kamen, the founder of FIRST, ‘We are not using kids to build robots, but we are using robots to build kids’.

Robot building teaches perseverance, team work, problem solving, creative thinking, communication and collaboration
It is not just about building robots, it is about building people who will change the world!
I invite you all to be the driving force behind this movement of building an army of Robot builders.
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
This blog was written by Kalai from Shiva Robotics Academy. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!
1 Comment

A Brief Introduction to Competitive Programming

6/8/2020

1 Comment

 
I first stumbled across competitive programming from a YouTube Video. A coding problem flashed onto the screen and before I could even read the prompt, the guy had already started coding the solution. The only audio was the fast clicking of his keyboard. I had never seen someone type so fast.
Competitive programming is a sport of the mind in which you compete with others to code solutions to sets of problems as quickly as possible. The problems often involve math, logic, data structures, and algorithms. The programs are judged on a variety of factors including how quickly the program can run and how much memory it takes up.
Intrigued, I decided to give it a try on HackerRank, a website which has hundreds of coding puzzles and also hosts competitive programming competitions. In my AP Computer Science class, we get assigned lots of coding puzzles and I always found myself doing extra problems just for fun during my free time. I was hooked on the satisfaction of solving puzzle after puzzle, but I had never thought about doing it with speed in mind. Needless to say, I was quite horrible when I was first starting out. My typing was sloppy and I made countless careless errors from trying to think too fast. Even though I was the slowest one by far, I was still having a lot of fun just solving the puzzles without thinking about time.
Another aspect of competitive programming that took some getting used to was making my code as efficient as possible. With my previous coding projects, I’ve always assumed that if the code runs it’s fine without any thought about how long the code took to compile or how much memory was being taken up. I remember being surprised when my code gave the right results but was marked wrong because it took too long to compile. Through this, I’ve become more conscious about making my code as concise and efficient as possible.
Besides being fun, it’s also great practice for improving your coding skills and helping you prep for potential coding interviews. While doing some practice free response questions for my AP Computer Science exam, I came across a problem very similar to one I had done on HackerRank. The more problems you get exposed to, the better your problem solving will become. While I started out on HackerRank, there are many different websites you can use to start out. For those interested, here is the link: https://www.hackerrank.com/. There are also lots of competitions held by big companies such as Facebook and Google. To those looking for a coding hobby outside of robotics, I highly recommend giving competitive programming a try.
If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!
1 Comment

Greater Pittsburgh Regional Webinar

4/25/2020

0 Comments

 
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!
0 Comments

A Change in Perspective on Female Involvement in FIRST

3/15/2020

0 Comments

 
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. 
Picture
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!

0 Comments

How FIRST has impacted our teams

3/6/2020

0 Comments

 
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!
0 Comments
<<Previous

    Be a guest author!

    Do you want to be a guest blogger for FIRST Ladies? You can write about a topic of your choice - just sign up on the schedule and your blog will be posted here!

    Click here to sign up!!

    Archives

    December 2020
    August 2020
    June 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    December 2019
    November 2019
    October 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    October 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    March 2018
    February 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    May 2017
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.