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Showing posts with the label Engaging girls in STEM

Building Team the Heat It Up and Keep It Cool Way

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Heat It Up and Keep It Cool: Teambuilding and Transitioning by Teresa Smalley Our team, Heat it Up and Keep it Cool Robotics , and its five members, have just ended our fourth year . We have graduated FIRST Lego League and are now FIRST Tech Challenge Team 8496 starting our rookie year! We have also added a sixth team member.  During the past four years we have spent an average of 15 to 20 hours per week together. For the past three three years we have been an Ambassador Team for the Los Angeles Region . This year we were one of two teams to win the Los Angeles Regional Championships, but no promotions were made to the World Festival from Southern California. We instead were invited to attend the International Open in Toronto , Canada. What an honor and an unbelievably great experience. In addition, we do outreach activities including mentoring two FLL teams and robotics demos at local monthly events.  Our program runs year round, we meet during the school year and dur...

Outreach: FIRST as a Movement in our Communities - FTC Team 7785

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Texas is the home of The Alamo, delicious BBQ, and the slogan �Don�t Mess with Texas.� It is one of the largest states in the continental US and encompasses some of the most diverse terrains in the country, ranging from deserts, swamps, to coastlines. It also happens to be the home of FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) Team 7785, The Pink Lady Hornets , a team who had the honor of advancing to the FTC South Super Regional for the 2013-2014 season. These ladies hail from Flour Bluff High School in Corpus Christi and alongside them, have a program at their school that includes 4 additional rookie teams, 2 of which are all girls� teams. Team 7785, an all girls� team of juniors and seniors, states that their mission is "To not only spread the idea of robotics, but to change the future of robotics by encouraging young girls to dream of being in the STEM fields and to chase these dreams regardless of societal stereotypes." This past season, The Pink Lady Hornets held their first �No Rob...