OUTREACH

One of the most important functions of our team is spreading what we’ve learned with others. Keep up to date with our latest events below!

2023 - 2024 - CenterStage

Girl Scout Lab Tour (Grades K-5)

At this lab tour, we customized our activities to target younger Girl Scouts, specifically scouts in grades K-5. During the tour, the scouts learned about the concept of robots, their prevalence in everyday applications, and the significance of design. The scouts had a great time driving our Batterbot and actively engaged in learning about this year’s game through a pixel activity. We also introduced the scouts to FLL programs since our FLL team, Green Legos, was also at the lab!

Girl Scout Lab Tour (Grades 6-12)

We were excited for our new collaboration with Girl Scouts of Chesapeake Bay. With this new collaboration, we are offering lab tours for interested Girl Scouts, which will help them with achieving their robotics badge. At this lab tour, it was tailored to Girl Scouts in grades K-5, and they learned about our team’s design/CAD process, test drove our Batterbot, and watched our drive team demonstrate this year’s competitive game.

January Scout Event with DMNS

We were excited to attend another Scout Event where we demonstrated our Batterbot. We assisted the scouts with their activity packets and helped them explore how robotics shows up in their everyday lives. At this event, we also promoted our upcoming Girl Scout lab tours. Many troops showed interest, so they signed up for lab tours in the summer.

Bridging the Gap

We were invited to attend another Science Saturday event at Hagley that focused on structural engineering. With the kids, we discussed important structural and design elements that are essential for building a stable and functional robot. We loved seeing the kids design and test their popsicle stick bridges by weighing how many marbles the bridge could hold.

December Scout Event with DMNS

We were invited again by the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science to present at their Scout Event. This event mainly targeted Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, and Boys and Girls Club. We helped the kids with their activity packets and brainstormed ideas for everyday applications of robotics.

November Scout Event with DMNS

We were invited by the Delaware Museum of Nature and Science to showcase the PowerPlay robot and Batter Bot to younger children who might be interested in FLL, primarily Girl Scouts. We loved seeing how them develop interest in robotics, especially since most of them had never seen a robot before. Many of the troop leaders also wanted to connect us with local organizations that they were a part to spread STEM and robotics to their communities

Robotics Roundup

We were excited about attending another Science Saturday event with Hagley Museum. For this robotics-centered topic, we decided to invite team Insert Team Name Here #18739 to help grow their outreach program. The kids enjoyed seeing 3 robots and spotting  differences in their designs. We also loved hearing the kids’ ideas on how we can further innovate the design of our robots, and we encouraged them to pursue those ideas with robotics in the future.

Creepy Chemistry

We were invited by the Hagley Museum to attend their annual Halloween event and hold robot demonstrations for the children. We had a great time handing out candy and loved seeing all of the kid’s costumes. We look forward to attending future Halloween events with Hagley!

Nature’s Dyes

Our team was invited by Hagley to hold demonstrations at their Nature’s Dyes event. Even though there was a relatively low attendance rate because of a storm, we were able to spend more one on one time with the families and inform them on how to become involved with FIRST Robotics.

HBCU Week with DuPont

We were invited by DuPont to join them at the HBCU Week STEM Day event. We brought our competition robot from the PowerPlay season, which outreach attendees could operate and test drive. We had a great time interacting with the participants and encouraging them to join DEFTC teams.

DEFTC Information Session

We invited 13 people who expressed interest in joining Delaware FTC programs to an information session we hosted at our lab. We presented the benefits of FTC, shared experiences from FTC students and mentors, and explained how to start or join an FTC team. The kids engaged in an activity where they could learn more about each other and interact with our team members.

Hagley STEM Camp

We volunteered at the Hagley STEM Summer Camp. We demonstrated our PowerPlay competition robot from the previous season, and the kids could interact with it by playing Tic-Tac-Toe. We also presented about robotics and the benefits that they offer.

2022-2023 - POWERPLAY

FLL Qualifier

We volunteered at an FLL qualifier where we talked with the kids about pursuing FTC after FLL. We explained how FTC differs from FLL and the lessons we learned from FTC. We encouraged the kids to research more about FTC programs and to continue with FIRST programs after FLL. We loved seeing how passionate the kids were about their robots and STEM.

Chemistry Week

We were invited by the Delaware ACS Section to attend the National Chemistry Week Children’s Event. We were able to have a lot of meaningful conversations with parents about the benefits of FIRST programs, while the kids drove the Batterbot through an obstacle course.

Delaware Museum of Nature & Science

We attended an outreach event at the Delaware Museum of Nature & Science where we demonstrated the Ultimate Goal competition robot and the Batterbot. We gave out brochures with more information about FIRST to the outreach attendees. We attended two sessions, one during the day with general admission tickets and another at night for their All Scouts night.

MAT Documentation Focus Session

In this meeting, we had members from the build, programming, and marketing subteams attend so we could go over the different documentation techniques relevant to each subteam. We also discussed the challenges we face with prioritizing documentation during the meeting.

MAT CAD Review Focus Session

This was our second MAT focus session that the build team hosted. They asked questions about how to improve their CAD processes and explained the different mechanisms of this year’s competition robot.

MAT Programming Autonomous Focus Session

We decided that a good way for us to improve our processes is to create a Mentorship Advisory Team with professionals in varying fields of expertise. This was our first focus session where we focused on programming autonomous.

Hagley STEM Camp

We attended Hagley’s STEM camp where we presented a slideshow to the kids about the power of robotics. We brought along the Freight Frenzy robot and batter-bot for the kids to drive around small courses.

Delaware Car Show

We were invited by Razor Steel to join them at the Car Show down in Kent County! We had a lot of fun showcasing our robots to a new audience in an area we don’t typically have outreaches in. Razor Steel provided a competition field where we drove around our competition robot from Freight Frenzy. We also enjoyed touring all of the different cars displayed!

Hagley Invention Convention

We were invited to Hagley’s Invention Convention event! We brought our Freight Frenzy competition robot and the Batterbot. We showed families our experience at Worlds with a slide show and explained the different mechanisms on our competition robot. We also encouraged them to join FIRST Lego League programs!

2021-2022 - FREIGHT FRENZY

Engineering Portfolio and Judging Workshop

We hosted an online workshop on Zoom about the Engineering Portfolio and Judging. There were 24 people who attended from 7 different teams, which allowed us to have an interactive presentation with all the participants.

Chipotle Fundraiser

We decided to try out fundraisers at restaurants such as Panera and Chipotle. At this event, 33% of the revenue will be donated to our cause of donating to the Delaware Food Bank. We distributed flyers, which must be shown at checkout to qualify for the fundraiser. We are excited to see the results and potential profit of this event.

Archmere Meet

This was our first FTC of the season! We went to Archmere with four other teams, Rob-Auk-tics, Robosapiens, Hiller Instinct, and RazorSteel. At this meet, we were able to interact with other teams and run a test trial with our robot. This gave us the opportunity to refine and improve upon our robot after the meet.

Canby Park with Lyrics and Logic

We attended Lyrics and Logic’s outreach at Canby Park. The goal was for local communities and families to come and check out different FTC teams. Children from nearby neighborhoods would be able to see our robots and try driving them. Unfortunately, due to poor weather, this outreach was canceled halfway through. We instead toured Lyrics and Logic’s lab and made a connection with the other FTC team.

Halloween at Hagley

For Halloween, we attended Halloween at Hagley. This outreach was the debut of the newest outreach bot that could harvest the “pumpkin.” Families of all ages had a blast driving the robot in attempts of catching the rotten pumpkins. We loved seeing all of the different costumes and handing out prizes to everyone while bringing awareness about our team.

Science Saturday at Hagley

At Hagley’s Science Saturday, the theme was “electricity,” so MOE students taught children how electricity is incorporated in robots. We put together a slideshow that explained what electricity was and how it was used in everyday life. By using a robot to demonstrate how important electricity is to robotics, we were able to bring attention to our FTC team.

Harvest Fall Festival

We went to Handloff Park and celebrated the new fall season with fall-themed activities and events. MOE students set up a booth where many families came and tried driving the Batterbot. We informed many people about FIRST programs with our posterboard and encouraged them to keep up with our team on social media.

Kickoff at Archmere Academy

This year, we broadcasted the Delaware FREIGHT FRENZY Kickoff Stream live on Twitch. MOE students gave presentations on the basics of design, build, and programming, and MOE mentors demonstrated the new field from a space provided by Archmere Academy.

Blue Rocks Game

At a Blue Rocks game at Frawley Stadium, MOE robotics was invited to promote STEM. We allowed kids (and Rocky!) to drive our Batter-bot, and we ran our Ultimate Goal robot along with teams Green Lemons, Lyrics and Logic, and ReMOEte. It was exciting to reconnect with other FTC teams and we hope to return next summer!

Hagley STEM Camp

We reached out to Hagley Museum to present at a week-long camp for middle school students. MOE gave a short presentation on the real world applications of robotics and basic programming, and then allowed the kids to drive both the Batter-Bot and Ultimate Goal robot. We were happy to strengthen our partnership with Hagley, and the kids were very excited to interact with the robots!

Warehouse Grand Opening

Our team was invited to the Warehouse’s Grand Opening in Wilmington to promote STEM and raise interest in creating new teams. We toured the new space and encouraged visitors to drive our modified outreach bot. Several new MOE students also gained experience talking about FIRST and representing the team at outreach events.

2020-2021 - ULTIMATE GOAL

FTC Engineering Portfolio Webinar

We worked with experienced Judge Advisor Ms. Lena Dillard to review the rules and best practices for creating a great engineering portfolio with a live audience consisting of several local teams. The recording is available here.

Halloween at the DMNH

In our first in-person event this season, we met many kids and families at the Delaware Museum of Natural History for socially distant trick or treating! We made a custom candy dispensing bot to deliver treats in a safe and fun way!

Delaware Virtual FTC Kickoff

Through Zoom and Twitch, the Delaware FTC teams were able to get together and have their first glimpse at the 2020-2021 FTC game: ULTIMATE GOAL. MOE’s programming team gave a presentation about basic coding, and we watched the game reveal through a livestream!

Robo Raiders #7129 Webinar

MOE worked with Robo Raiders FTC #7129 for a webinar that discussed several FTC topics including talking to professionals, team management, and more. MOE’s programming team attended this webinar and talked about the use of wheel-based odometry. The webinar recording is available here.

Newark Charter FLL Workshop

We held 3 virtual workshops with Newark Charter students, including several who are on FIRST Lego League teams. We improved on the curriculum we used during Serviam’s summer program for even more engaging sessions!

Serviam Academy Summer Program

The Serviam Girls Academy held a virtual summer camp for their middle school students this month. This week, MOE collaborated with the school during their STEM themed week and worked with students to teach them about AI, aerospace, robotics, and coding. We had a lot of fun working through simulations and making paper planes with them!

2019-2020 - SKYSTONE

Towle Meet

Towle was the first of this week’s FTC doubleheader! We were happy to see how well our fellow Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Maryland teams have done so far! Best of luck to all the teams we met, and thank you to all the volunteers who made this event possible!

Juliette’s Revenge #14851

Thanks to Juliette’s Revenge for visiting us in the lab today - we’re glad that we were able to help! Good luck with your season and we hope to see your team again soon!

Oxford Scrimmage

MOE’s first competition of the season was at Oxford Area High School. We had a great time seeing so many creative designs and ideas. Thanks to all of the volunteers and teams who made this day so much fun!

National Chemistry Week

MOE was able to participate in the National Chemistry Week event at the Independence School. We had a lot of fun teaching young students from our local community about robotics and driving the batter bot and 2018-2019 competition robot with the kids. We hope to return to National Chemistry Week next year!