Community Involvement
Our team has made a big effort to be involved in our community by offering various science camps and participating in community events. We also give presentations about the advantages of FIRST Robotics and demonstrate our robots at local schools and businesses. We have found many people have never heard of FIRST Robotics, causing us to spread the knowledge of FIRST even more vigorously!
Outreach
Outreach has always been part of the FIRST community, and is an important component of our team. It is exciting when we have the opportunity to share the organization we are so passionate about with as many people as possible.
We regularly attend robotics demonstrations such as a library event in a local park, elementary school STEM days, local university STEM events, the Gowen Thunder Air Show, and many more. The Meridian Dairy Days parade is one event that stands out. As we moved through the parade route the crowd was excited for our float.
When our robot, Clampy, would shoot the ball into the basketball hoop they would chant and cheer when it made a basket and sighed with disappointment when Clampy missed. We have seen how these demonstrations can ignite STEM interest in individuals that would have never noticed FIRST otherwise, and this small act makes a significant impact on the community as a whole.
Assisting Others
We have assisted local FRC team 5461 through the sharing of field elements for competition preparation, as well as the numerous teams we offer assistance to at competition events. Two of our mentors regularly support the FRC Idaho regional, one of which was named Volunteer of the Year at the 2023 event. We also regularly support the annual FLL Explore competition, and our student volunteers help make these events a possibility in our area.
The First Mission
We not only take charge as leaders in our local robotics community, but also work to spread the mission of FIRST through our larger educational institution.
We participated in the PATHS tutoring program, giving our team members a chance to help underprivileged students in STEM subjects. Additionally, we organized student-initiated demos at three of our represented high schools in engineering classrooms, spreading awareness and fostering relationships with educators in our area. It was our t-shirt cannon’s debut, however, that truly connected us with the Bishop Kelly High School community.
TONK
On October 13, 2023, our t-shirt cannon, “TONK” made his grand debut at the Bishop Kelly High School homecoming football game, making our robotics program interesting and available to the sports community who may have never heard of it prior to the game. Our goal is to use our t-shirt cannon to raise awareness of STEM, FIRST robotics, and our team as a unique sport, not just for Bishop Kelly, but to a variety of schools in our area.