SCOUTreach

Purpose:
SCOUTreach is our bold, self-developed initiative to inspire young girls to find a passion for STEM activities through early exposure. 
​Girls continue to be underrepresented in STEM activities. On our team, we value equity and diversity. One of the best ways we can help increase the diversity in these fields is by helping to expose girls to STEM from a young age. In Fall 2018, we began to develop our own curriculum to work with elementary school-aged Girl Scout troops to give them a fun and engaging introduction to programming, design, and engineering. We held our first event on December 4th, 2018, and have now hosted a total of 12 troops ranging from 2nd grade to 7th grade (including one Cub Scout troop). We now have two different curriculums, one for elementary school troops (Brownies and Juniors) and one for middle school troops (Cadettes).
Impact:
We have worked with nearly 200 students K-8th grade in SCOUTreach. Over 20 team members have participated. We regularly bring in new team members to help, which gives them experience speaking in front of a group, teaching, and engaging with the community in a fun, low-pressure environment.
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At the end of each program, we have the students fill out cards marked, “I’m inspired to…” With this, we encourage the students to think about what they can do next, and how they can take what they learn from us into their future. We are often blown away by the insightful comments the young engineers share, and we are particularly pleased when young girls say they want to join robotics when they are older. We hope that we inspire these students, especially girls, to pursue additional STEM opportunities. We also provide resource cards to each student as shown below to give them easy access to more materials to explore programming, robotics, and more.
Elementary/Middle School:
We start the program by having the girls decode a secret message that says: “I will change the world with science, technology, engineering, and math!”
Next, we all introduce ourselves and discuss the design process and coding
Our Programming Language Matching Game breaks the girls up into small teams, then we explain each language and its uses
Our Robot Relay Cup Stacking Game teaches    the girls about programming concepts in an engaging way
We discuss the connection between the games and the actual experience of programming robots 
Students get to try programming on code.org for themselves with a partner while our team members provide guidance
We transition to the Types of Robots Guessing Game to start the girls thinking about all the applications of robotics
We brainstorm what types of problems robots can be used to solve and how they can help people in a variety of ways
The girls work in pairs to sketch and build LEGO prototypes to solve any real-world problem
Each pair presents their robot to the group 
The girls fill out “I’m inspired to…” cards and share them with the whole group
Our team members present the Inspire and Innovate Awards to the most creative teams
We let each girl drive our Outreach Robot, starting with the winners of the relay game
We take a group photo and distribute marketing materials like stickers, buttons, and  resource cards

Elementary/Middle Schools

Impact: Involvement with younger students through their schools exposes students to STEM from a young age and improves our presence in the wider community.
Drone Team Mentoring:
What we did:
  • Coached an 8th grade drone team from Borel Middle School for three months
  • Helped brainstorm and solve mechanical and programming problems
  • Seeked out additional support from Nueva students when needed
  • Attended competition at Nueva HS
What we learned:
  • We can apply skills learned from FIRST to other engineering challenges
  • Other people are eager to learn from us if we are willing to share our expertise
  • Working with Nueva was valuable because they are an FRC team as well
​What is the impact?
  • Three of the Drone Team members joined Aragon Robotics in the fall as freshmen
  • We developed teaching skills by effectively helping students without dominating
  • We connected with the Nueva High School robotics program, as they were the hosts
Recruitment:
What we did:
  • Visited three feeder middle schools: Borel, Bayside, and Bowditch
  • Presented our team, including how to join
  • Played trivia and gave students a chance to drive our Outreach robot
  • Gave out stickers and flyers
​What we learned:
  • We have a lot of students coming in who are interested in robotics
  • We will need to be able to accommodate a larger team size
  • We should make sure we advertise more at each school before we attend
​What is the impact?
  • Recruitment - builds the size of our team for the future leading to longevity
  • Gets students excited to come to Aragon and join our team
  • Exposes students to robotics and gives them information on getting involved
Science Fairs:
What we did:
  • Held a demonstration at the Baywood Elementary School Science Fair
  • Talked about our team and gave out marketing materials
  • Taught students about robotics and let them drive our Outreach robot
​What we learned:
  • Parents are eager for their kids to experience STEM at a very young age
  • We should work more with our community of Elementary school students
  • Baywood wants to work with us more in the future on Outreach programs
​What is the impact?
  • Helps young kids experience STEM and robotics so they can see if they find it interesting
  • Gets students excited to come to Aragon and join our team when they are older
  • Builds our connection to students and parents from our neighborhood community

Community Events

Impact: When we get out into our local community, we build our brand and make connections with students and adults alike. We also get experience presenting.
Bay Area Maker Faire:
What we did:
  • Presented our team in the FIRST tent
  • Talked to attendees about our robot and our team, met other FIRST teams
  • Gave out marketing materials
  • Explored the amazing exhibits at the Maker Faire (Team Bonding!)
​What we learned:
  • We should bring more members to the Maker Faire because it is impressive
  • There are many ways to apply robotics to industry and arts as seen at the Faire
  • The Maker Faire will no longer be taking place in San Mateo after this year
What is the impact?
  • Lets us join the Bay Area tech community in presenting  at this special San Mateo event
  • Builds our brand in the community and encourage people to join our team and attend Aragon
  • Exposes our members to applications of engineering in industry, arts, and more
  • Team bonding increases as we all spent the day together exploring the exhibits ​
San Mateo County Fair:
What we did:
  • Presented our team in the FIRST area
  • Talked to attendees about our robot and our team, met other FIRST teams
  • Gave out marketing materials
  • Allowed kids to drive our robots
  • Connected to other teams presenting
  • Explored the rest of the County Fair
​What we learned:
  • There is a lot of interest in robotics in the wider San Mateo community
  • Little kids enjoy “feeding” our FRC robot when it picks up the orange balls 
  • Members enjoy Outreach opportunities that involve working with little kids
​What is the impact?
  • Lets us join the Bay Area community in presenting  at this special San Mateo event
  • Builds our brand in the community and encourage people to join our team and attend Aragon
  • Exposes young kids to STEM and robotics when they get to drive our robot
  • Team Bonding in the summer when we all explored the rest of the Fair together

City Council Materials Drive

Impact: We connected with local politicians in our area and got access to useful prototyping materials that we could then share with other local robotics teams.
What we did:
  • Reached out to seven Foster City Council Candidates through email
  • Got permission to collect corrugated plastic campaign signs after election day
  • Dismantled signs, counted, and sorted what our mentors picked up
  • Offered materials to other local teams
What we learned:
  • Candidates are happy to work with us and donate their materials for our use
  • Other teams also need prototyping materials and we can work with them to do more drives in the future
  • We picked up too much material and we will have a lot of extra left over
​What is the impact?
  • Allows us to become familiar with politicians on a local scale in our community
  • Gives us valuable prototyping materials to use in FRC and FTC season
  • Lets us help other teams get prototyping materials as well and connects us to them

Library Python Class

Impact: This class gave our programmers teaching experience, which bolsters our own new-member training. We also expose young students to fun programming.
What we did:
  • Planned a programming curriculum
  • Hosted a class at the Foster City library
  • Middle School students came every Sunday for 6 weeks
  • Taught Python programming concepts through fun applications like math, game design and development, and more
​What we learned:
  • Our programmers gained experience in teaching in a low-pressure environment
  • This prepares them to train new members at the start of the next season
  • Keeping students focused on certain tasks proves to be difficult sometimes
  • We need more team members at events
​What is the impact?
  • Exposes young students to programming concepts taught by our experienced members
  • Gives our programmers teaching experience to prepare them to train new members
  • Connects us to possible future robotics team members and gets them interested in our team
  • Establishes a positive relationship with the Foster City Library and the staff there in case we want to use the space again in the future for other events

Night of Robots

Impact: Hosting young students from our neighborhood at our shop gets students excited to come to Aragon and join robotics when they are older.
What we did:
  • Communicated with BrainVyne and Gunn High School’s robotics team to plan event
  • Hosted 50+ elementary school students at our shop for a two-hour event
  • Built LEGO robots in pairs with helpers
  • Demonstrated FTC and FRC robots, 
  • Served pizza, drinks, and snacks
​What we learned:
  • Over 50 kids was too many to have in our shop at one time
  • We needed more volunteers to help out
  • Communicating on exactly what will be happening is important before events
  • BrainVyne is a valuable resource for Outreach materials
​What is the impact?
  • Helps young kids experience STEM and robotics so they can see if they find it interesting
  • Gets students excited to come to Aragon and join our team when they are older
  • Builds our connection to students and parents from our neighborhood community
  • Gives team members experience in leading kids and teaching what they know

Local Media

Impact: Being present in local media builds the Aragon Robotics brand in our wider community and shares our values with those around us, including possible recruits.
In December 2018 following the launch of our SCOUTreach program, the San Mateo Daily Journal reached out to us to ask if they could feature our team’s Outreach programs, specifically our efforts to bring more girls into STEM. Our Business Captain provided an interview where she described what we have accomplished, and on December 8th, 2018, our team was featured in the print edition of the San Mateo Daily Journal as well as online. We are proud to have been recognized in our local media for our work in the community, as we feel this is a great representation of our team’s values.