Outreach
FIRST® Tech Challenge Championship
Our team had the honor of holding the FIRST Tech Challenge District Championship for the Chesapeake District. Members of our team worked as referees, field resetters, pit managers, concession workers, lounge managers, and performed other important jobs to ensure that everything ran smoothly. By hosting this event, we were able to grow as students, teammates, and members of the FIRST community. We promoted collaboration between the FTC teams through the coach lounges and discussion rooms, where coaches could share information about their robots and programs. We also raised money through concessions to donate to Bello Machre. With the dedication of our school, coaches, and community, the event was a major success.
WITHIN FIRST
FIRST LEGO League
LEGO League is a division of FIRST where younger children compete in robotics challenges that are LEGO-based rather than full-scale and develop a foundation in robotics that they build upon in their future schooling and career. Our team volunteers at LEGO League competitions to assist during setup and cleaning, judge matches, and run the event smoothly. Mentoring younger engineers is important to keeping them on the path to success in STEM, where they can build up our communities in the future.
OUTREACH PROGRAMS
Gears in Motion (GIM)
Gears In Motion (GIM) is a hands-on educational activity for elementary students that teaches collaboration, simple machines, and the assembly of parts. GIM begins by introducing gears to the students; they then work as a team to assemble their GIM robots from colorful, 3D-printed parts. After the activity, each participant to take home a GIM robot to keep as a toy.
GIM is all about teamwork, with every person learning and contributing their unique skills. Part of GIM is the catchphrase "Turn Together," which describes the gears but also the kids learning teamwork.
Bello Machre
Our team comes together often to do community outreach. Since 2021, we have partnered with St. Vincent de Paul Society and Bello Machre to provide people in need with meals during the holidays. Working with them, our members have delivered over 500 full dinners for such families every single year.
YMCA
We partner with the YMCA to introduce engineering and robotics to kids in our community through STEM nights, which include hands-on building activities with metallic parts, Legos, and our very own GIM robots. By partnering with the YMCA, we reach more young engineers in our community and help them recognize their potential.
Engineering Service Society(ESS)
At Archbishop Spalding High School, the Engineering Service Society (ESS) collaborates with organizations such as Bello Machre and Go Baby Go to assist people in need. Through these partnerships, ESS helps high-needs neurodivergent individuals and children with difficulty walking live fulfilling and independent lives. ESS has a significant amount of overlap in leadership and membership with our FRC team, attracting many new members while providing our members with additional opportunities to contribute to our community.
OUR TEAM HAS COMPLETED OVER 4000 + SERVICE HOURS IN THE PAST 3 YEAR!
Robotics Mentoring Program
A responsibility we took as a team is the mentoring of FIRST teams in our community. Within our program, we send small groups of our members to middle/elementary schools in the Archdiocese of Baltimore to guide teams and new coaches in their build and competition seasons every week. Mentorship makes FIRST more accessible to schools that don’t have robotics because it allows STEM teachers and school administrators to feel that there’s no risk in starting a FIRST team. Through this program, we can directly interact with the schools we serve and this allows us to provide resources like technology, information, and experience to member schools.
