Why do we do Outreach?

By Lucy C.

“We do Outreach so that we can reach out to people who are interested in or maybe who have never heard of FIRST or robotics to try to encourage them to join.” —Mischa

While FIRST’s resource library contains a variety of tools participants can use to refine their programming and obtain hardware kits for basic mechanics, it also challenges members of this community to translate their aptitudes into action. That is, they must spread the word about the FIRST community and the wonderful world of robotics in what is known as Outreach. 

Being annual participants of FIRST’s Tech Challenges, CAOS Robotics already knows that it must balance book smarts with action in order to remain a competitive team in FIRST. Given the fact that Outreach is a requirement for any qualified FTC participant, we know that any team can attempt to do Outreach out of urgency and obligation. However, what makes our own team’s commitment to Outreach so unique? What does Outreach actually mean to us? What does it mean to each individual team member? 

We do not do Outreach merely because we are required to do so. Here are three crucial reasons each team member in CAOS Robotics is committed to Outreach:

1. To help students put science principles into practice. 

There is no point in pouring over the laws of physics and learning how to manipulate a medley of functions, equations, and inequalities on Desmos. After all, it's not like it will be useful in real life! Actually, robotics does enable these principles to be put into practice. By engaging in Outreach and openly advertising FIRST robotics, we try to help students translate their knowledge into action. Kate, a middle school student in CAOS Robotics, sums this up by describing how “outreach is just… the things we go out to do to have people do things,” and Pablo, another middle schooler, builds off of this by describing how our team “does activities that encourages STEM or STEAM.” Our team emphasizes STEM as a hands-on, project-based field, not just the monotonous and impractical memorization of information. 

In fact, Sullivan, a high school student in our team and former participant in FIRST Lego Leagues, described how he “got into math and physics because he wanted to know how Legos would connect together and how to make them stronger,” hence applying what he learned about tensile strength and other physical and mathematical properties while designing robots. Members like Sullivan have been inspired by their own experiences in the FIRST community to emphasize the applications of STEM to the community via Outreach. 

1. To increase involvement and enjoyment in STEM.

In a 2006 discussion forum on College Confidential, several students complained about how much they hated their science classes. One respondent called courtney74 described how science classes were “either too difficult to understand, or too boring to pay attention to.” By participating in Outreach and advertising FIRST robotics, we hope to reverse this trend among fellow youth. 

Samson, the captain of our team, describes how Outreach can help “inspire new people to find interest in robotics,” “cultivate interest in (other) fields related to STEM,” and “make someone else have a fun time” the same way we have as part of the FTC community. Wessley also mirrors this last sentiment by describing how Outreach can enable team members “to join our team” and “know the things we do” so that they can “have fun.” Being a part of the FIRST community, we feel obligated to help other youths enjoy the same experiences we have as participants in its annual tech challenges.  

Jaden, another middle school student in our team, also describes how Outreach “allows new and upcoming STEM enthusiasts to hone their passions, which could lead to the next generation of trailblazers.” Our team believes that every person has the potential to participate, enjoy, and thrive in a healthy STEM-driven environment. Hence, we believe it is up to us to nurture this potential and transform it into passion and involvement.

1. To interact with the community.

The University of Berkeley’s Understanding Science initiative describes how one common misconception about science is that it “is a solitary pursuit.” As avid contributors to Outreach, we know that this is far from the truth. 

Matheson, a middle school student in CAOS Robotics, describes how he thinks Outreach is “an amazing way to find new people for our team.” Thanks to Outreach, in fact, all of the middle school students described in this article joined our team just last summer!

Diego, a high school student in our team, adds on to this point, telling us that it “is very fun to interact with the younger STEM community” and “it is a great experience to be able to do Outreach for younger kids and get them excited about STEM.” Essentially by interacting with younger students, we hope to convert students obsessed with skibidi Ohio into the next generation of curious, inquiring individuals with an adequate STEM education. ;)

Mr. Brown, the lead mentor of our team, also describes how the meaning of Outreach itself is for our team “to reach out to the rest of the community” and foster “a better STEM culture.” He then further explains how Outreach gives team members the opportunity to “speak in public about something that they already feel comfortable with a passionate about so it takes away some of the nervousness of public presentation,” thereby enabling students to boost their own confidence while giving to the community. By benefitting the community via Outreach, we are able to benefit ourselves. It is a win-win, as Mr. Brown describes it!

“Outreach is an effort to get other people to join,” says Ryoma, a high school student in our team. Indeed, Outreach draws other people into the wonderful world of robotics by guiding students to put science principles into practice, encouraging involvement and enjoyment of STEM among our generation’s youth, and fostering interaction between robotics teams and their communities.

Or, as high school student Avery puts it, “I love Outreach. It’s wonderful!”