Women in STEM Was a Success!


Hey everyone, hope you're doing well! We were introduced to a new and fantastic outreach opportunity not too long ago, the Women in STEM event at Heritage High School in Vancouver, WA. The event took place on Saturday, March 24th and was centered around girls participating in tech-based activities and workshops, as well as getting to know local tech companies and organizations such as our own.

We had several opportunities to give a short presentation on our robot, this year's FTC challenge, opportunities for scholarships and firsthand experience, club and team dynamics and everything else that goes into robotics. 

There was also time to hang around in the commons area and demonstrate the robot in action, and  talk to passersby one-on-one about how awesome robotics is! ARKI (our affectionate name for this year's robot) got an overwhelmingly positive reception from most of the nearly 500 people who attended the event, and many of the girls had a great time controlling it for themselves!

The workshop we hosted involved our attending members, especially Parker (one of the programmers) teaching participants about a particular device and then letting them tinker and customize it for themselves, in this case being the Sphero robotic balls that have proven their value time and time again. They are simple to set up, fun to program and a blast to play with and were a hit among those that attended. There was even an obstacle course where our attendees could test out their creations!

Finally, we were visited by a representative from Wafertech, a local semiconductor manufacturer located just up the road from Union HS, where we are based. It was great to have them visit us and we're incredibly grateful for their support of our team! 

Overall, Women in STEM was a stellar opportunity to give back to the local community, and we definitely hope we can attend an event like this again!



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