Boy Scout Troop 47 Demonstration By Allen and Kayla Li
Troop 47 is a local Boy Scout troop that some of our team members attend. Realizing that many of our members are members of Troop 47, we decided to it was only fit that we do a FIRST robotics demo to inspire and introduce them to STEM to members of our community. We reached out to two other FTC teams in our community who came to help us demonstrate the key values of FIRST and socialize with the young crowd of scouts. We believe that hosting outreach events with other teams allows us to form friendships, exchange ideas, and connect with our communities.
To have an accurate representation of the FIRST competition this year, we brought a full practice field, a complete set of minerals, and each team brought a drivable robot. We started out with a presentation of FIRST, introducing the series of robotics competitions from FLL Jr. to FRC so that the scouts had a brief background of what our program is all about. Additionally we screened this year’s FTC game, introduced each of the teams and identified the differences between joining a community team versus a school affiliated team. For many of the scouts, it was their first time hearing about the FIRST organization and several of them demonstrated great enthusiasm for the hands on aspect of engineering.
Following the presentation, we directed their attention to the playing field where we gave scouts the ability to maneuver the robots and experiment with the functions of the robots. Scouts formed a series of lines, eagerly awaiting their turn to drive the robot. With members from all teams present, we walked around and answered questions that the curious scouts had for us.
In conclusion, the Boy Scouts Troop 47 demonstration was a success because it exposed FIRST to a large group of scouts and it allowed us to practice our presentation skills. From this, we were able to work with like-minded teams, build communication skills, and find flaws in our robot. Furthermore, we taught younger scouts about FIRST, created an interactive experience for everyone and most importantly we did all of this while having fun.