Outreach with the ERRORs

We participate in many different parades in our community including Strawberry Fest, Pioneer Days, Heritage Days, and Woodbury Days. Through these parades, we have been able to reach out to thousands of people in our community and collaborate with other FIRST teams in our area.

One of our biggest outreach events during the summer is the Robots Invade the Plaza event put on by our sponsor 3M. During the event, we talk to 3M employees and their families about our season and opportunities for them in FIRST activities. Kids get to drive robots and play around with the game pieces in 3M’s plaza. Before lunch, all of the FIRST teams put on a little parade around the plaza and after lunch, everyone gets together for a panel meeting with 3M employees that are FIRST alumni. They talk about their experiences with college and life after FIRST. In 2019, 30 FIRST teams participated in the event, including 22 FRC teams, 6 FTC teams, and 2 FLL teams. Almost 600 people were at the event.

Every summer our team hosts a Summer STEM Camp for students in our community to learn about robotics and STEM. In 2019, we had 20 students participate in the camp where we spent a week in the shop learning how to build a miniature robotic. The students learned how to build, drive, and program a robot to complete a test. It is a great way to introduce STEM, FIRST, and engineering to kids in our community and practice our leadership skills as a team.

Another big event during our pre-season is The East Metro Collaborative Competition or EMCC. EMCC is hosted by us, 2175, and 3883 at East Ridge High School. The off-season competition encourages collaboration and coopertition between FIRST teams in our community and is a great opportunity for teams to train new drive teams for the upcoming season. In 2019, we had 30 teams participate including FRC and FTC teams. The event provided an opportunity for FTC teams to compete with others and test out their robots prior to their own competitions. Additionally, at the event, we host seminars about many different team aspects like outreach, CAD, and scouting and strategy. We also broadcast the event live on FIRST Updates Now so other members of our community can watch the event. EMCC is a great event that shows people what FIRST is like and helps to introduce STEM in our community in a fun way.

To learn more about EMCC or sign up to participate, click the button below to visit our EMCC website.

EMCC

Another way we introduce STEM and FIRST in our community is through presentations in our local middle schools and science fairs. We talk about what it is like to be on a FIRST team and why they should look into joining any FIRST activity. We let the kids drive our robot and bring other STEM projects for them to complete.