FIRST Ladies

All Girls School and Robotics

3/20/2021

When you hear the phrase “all girls” whether it's schools or robotics teams what do you think of? Many people have misled notions about what it means to be part of an all girls school or team. One of the biggest criticisms I have heard people voice is that there is an immense amount of drama in an all girls environment. As a Junior at Salem Academy, an all girls school, I can say that the notion that all girls schools are filled with drama is the farthest thing from the truth. Attending an all girls school creates an incredibly strong community, filled with confident young women who believe in themselves, what they can do, and they use that confidence to boost up the young women around them. I have personally seen the positive impact an all girls environment has had on the development of other girls confidence and abilities.
I can especially feel the sense of community in an all girls robotics team. Before I went to Salem Academy I was enrolled in a co-ed public school where the majority of boys steamrolled girls in STEM activities. That problem is virtually nonexistent with an all girls team because it feels like we are all on the same wavelength. We are able to connect more because when you have an all girls robotics team it is much easier to understand how we all think and act. Not to mention most of my team being friends before we joined robotics. Other than the community an all girls robotics team allows us to be imperfect. When I was at my co-ed school I always felt I had to be perfect in order to keep my STEM “street cred”. I knew that there was not a high tolerance for imperfect girls in STEM because as soon as you would slip up or make a mistake, it gave certain people the chance to enforce harmful stereotypes that women don’t belong in the STEM fields. Since these harmful stereotypes are more often than not perpetuated by boys, an all girls environment provides a safe place to make mistakes, learn, and grow without fear of being judged or ridiculed.
I think the main thing to take away from this is that an all female school and/or team is a great opportunity for young women to discover what they are interested in without judgement. I highly recommend that all girls consider the possibility of being a part of an all girls school/ robotics team.

This blog was written by Emma from FTC team 7444. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!

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Hidden gems in first

3/19/2021

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Hi my name is Anna and I am a 16 year old on the co-ed FRC team 4967 That ONE Team-Our Next Engineers. I am a student co-captain on my student leadership team and work mainly with our business and media team. I joined FIRST in the fall of 2018 as a freshman in high school. My first meeting was an interesting one, as my brother was the one who forced me to come since he was already on the team. I thought FIRST was just about the robot, and because I am not a very fabrication-oriented person, the team didn’t interest me at first. But then I found out about the business team and I was hooked.
As a person more interested in art than building, I would not have done well on a team just oriented towards fabrication. So when I first heard the phrase “FIRST is more than just robots”, it really resonated with me. A FIRST team, no matter what the level, teaches you so many skills about leadership, presenting in front of others, how to market your team, how to connect with and learn from your teammates, and most importantly how to have fun. FIRST has changed my life for the better: I have become more confident in myself, I have learned how to lead and how to follow, and I have learned so many skills that will be essential to my future.
Every year of my time on the team, I have participated in the Chairman’s award submission. I, along with a few other students, worked together to write the essay and executive questions, create a presentation, and present in front of a panel of judges at competitions. Many people don’t see the value of being part of the Chairman’s submission, but I strongly disagree. Each year I learn more and more about my team, about FIRST, and about what it means to be in FIRST, along with so many writing and presentation skills that I will need for my future. Instead of viewing it as just another task, I started to view it as a way to share my story with others in FIRST, to share how it has inspired me, to become who I am today.
When I first joined my team, I was unsure of the purpose of it all. From my outside perspective I only saw it as a competition between teams, maybe a way to have fun, but boy was I wrong. FIRST has completely changed the opportunities that I have for my future. Along with the skills that I have learned, it has led me to my chosen career path of graphic design. FIRST gives me the opportunity to connect with many business professionals, and FIRST team experience can open many doors to colleges and careers.
As a Junior in high school, I only have one season left after 2021 as a student, after which I will officially be a FIRST alum. It can be scary to think about the future sometimes, where to go to college, what career to go into, and many other things. I may not have all of my plans figured out, but the one thing I do know is that I plan on becoming a mentor on a FIRST team, wherever I end up. The knowledge and experiences that we have are unique to us, so there is no better person to pass this on to the next generation than us. We have been through the things that the younger students are going through, so we can be there to help them through it, inspire them to take charge, and be a leader.
As women in FIRST, we can be there to inspire the next generation of women to take the paths that we did, to improve our future, to become leaders, to prove to the world that we can do it all. I am one of three women students on my team. All three of us are in leadership positions, and all of us pursuing different aspects of the team. We can be role models for the next generation, to pursue what we are passionate about, no matter the stereotypes. So as a final message, stand up for who you are, become a leader, and inspire the next generation to do the same. The world always needs more women who are willing to stand up and show the world who we are.

This blog was written by FRC Team 4967 That ONE Team. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!

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From FIRST Robotics to First on Mars

2/17/2021

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Skills from FIRST?
Many participants of FIRST understand they have developed many skills when in the
program. From coding to mechanisms, team members understand the process of
development. These are qualities that make many FIRST alumni perfect candidates for jobs
within STEM industries. Having already experienced design, product development, and
team collaboration with a deadline of about two and a half to three months, many
companies find these students have found the necessary experience before entering the
workforce. Director of Advanced Technology, Dave Vasko, says that, “ I’m not looking for
particular experience as much as whether people can work collaboratively as part of a
team.” - a key skill to be successful in a FIRST competition.

Now?
With space missions underway, the popularity and funding for space travel has
dramatically increased within the past ten years, e.g. with the launch of Space X’s Falcon Heavy rocket. In addition, with NASA returning to manned missions to the moon, the idea to explore deep space has never drawn a greater audience since the space shuttle missions began in 1981. The difference? Today we are getting ready to explore and meet our next challenge: the Red Planet - Mars. This is the goal NASA initially hoped to achieve by the 2030s, meaning this is a task that is destined for our generation: Gen Z: The Mars Generation. We are a generation with the experience of FIRST robotics.

Gen Z: The future?
Gen Z is the future of space travel and we WILL be the ones who will achieve this wondrous
mission to Mars. Having been gathering and acquiring the necessary skills to accomplish
this mission, we are on our way to achieving this historic milestone. Even if there are strict
requirements to becoming an astronaut, such as: “a bachelor’s degree in engineering, biological science, physical science, computer science, or mathematics, followed by three years of professional experience (or 1,000 hours of pilot-in-command time in jet
aircraft)”(CalTech), this is all in addition to NASA’s “astronaut physical examination”. What
does this mean for FIRST participants? This means were are more than ready to take on the
next step in space travel. According to the Cal Tech Jet Propulsion Laboratory, starting a
robotics club at your school is one of the best ways to prepare yourself for, not only college,
but towards your goal of becoming an astronaut. Over 12,000 people applied between March 3 and 31, 2020 to join the next class of NASA astronauts. NASA is aiming to reveal the next class of astronauts in October or November 2021. The only thing left to wonder is whether we will be ready when the next call comes? Destination: Mars, nevertheless, WE WILL BE READY!

This blog was written by Izabella Pollett. If you are interested in blogging for FIRST Ladies, click here to sign up on the schedule!

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Stem education in the classroom part 2

1/18/2021

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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 services.google.com/fh/files/misc/computer-science-education-in-us-k12schools-2020-report.pdf(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!

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STEM education in the classroom part 1

1/18/2021

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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).

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First Ladies Game Night!!!!

12/15/2020

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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!

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.

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!

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Intro to Scratch Programming Camp

12/8/2020

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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.

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.

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.

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!”

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!

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FTC Qualifier Lunch

8/19/2020

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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.

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!

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Parent involvement in FIRST

6/27/2020

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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

for a rookie team.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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!

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A Brief Introduction to Competitive Programming

6/8/2020

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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!

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All Girls School and Robotics

Hidden gems in first

From FIRST Robotics to First on Mars

Stem education in the classroom part 2

STEM education in the classroom part 1

First Ladies Game Night!!!!

Intro to Scratch Programming Camp

FTC Qualifier Lunch

Parent involvement in FIRST

A Brief Introduction to Competitive Programming

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