FIRST Robotics wows Kiwanis

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We heard from Doreen Keptner and Annette Murray of FIRST Robotics Club of Great Lakes Bay Region.  FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) is a leading international non-profit organization promoting STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics). Their mission is to provide robotics programs that give youth the skills, confidence & resilience to build a better world. In their programs, students work as a team, collaborating with mentors, to design & build a new robot each season for game challenges.

FIRST-GLBR was created in 2011 to serve Midland, Bay, Saginaw, and Isabella counties,

starting with 4 high school programs. Now the organization supports 150 teams across 4 different age groups: Explore for grades K-2, Challenge for grades 3-5, Tech Challenge for grades 6-8, and Robotics Competition for grades 9-12.

FIRST GLBR work with corporations and foundations for funding, provide space and host competitions, and provide training. 100% of their funding is used for tools & parts, paying competition fees, and running outreach programs.

FIRST is about “more than robots” and delivers significant impact on the youth who participate in their programs. Team members participate in many STEM and community outreach programs. Older students help mentor younger students, and as they work through the various age levels, they specialize in different aspects of developing business plans, fundraising, and planning

outreach events.

We heard from a Jefferson Middle School student who demonstrated her team’s robot which can collect, sort, and shoot multi-colored balls. She credits FIRST with greatly improving her critical thinking, collaboration, and communication skills.

We also heard from several members of the Dow High team. Their 50-person team designed

and built their robot in 8 weeks. They also stressed the importance of teamwork, collaboration and resiliency. To succeed in competitions, teams need to anticipate what might go wrong and be able to come up with fixes “on the fly”.

Part of the competition involves collaborating with other competing robotics teams to work together toward a goal. They also emphasized the value of working together to set sustainability goals and community impact goals.

Team members really valued the program’s ability to put classroom theories (i.e. math formulas) into practice toward practical uses. Over the years, FIRST has advocated for formal courses at

Dow High, which now offers a Principles of Engineering (POE) course which is very challenging. Teams built underwater robots and aids for the hearing impaired. Another value of these programs is the involvement of mentors and parents. Competitions are fun and filled with

energy!

Volunteers are always welcome, especially those that bring some electromechanical and programming skills.  Following the program, the club presented a team from Floyd Elementary with tablets to assist in their design and programming.