Letter To The Editor: HS Juniors Invite Parents To Join Robotics

Brookline MA

26 August, 2021

12:13 PM

Description

BROOKLINE, MA — The following letter to the editor was submitted by Brookline High School juniors Audrey S. Garon and Sara Gonzalez. Formed in 2019, the Bot Boizz is an all-girls high school robotics team based in Brookline. The Bot Boizz participate in FTC (FIRST Tech Challenge) robotics competitions. The team works together to design, build, and program a robot that is then used to compete against other FTC teams. In addition to engineering a robot for their own team, the Bot Boizz strive to expand robotics in their community. The Bot Boizz won the FTC Community Outreach Award in all of their competitions as a first-year team in 2019. Their outreach continued over the summer through classes they set up at Brookline Adult & Community Education at Runkle to teach children about robotics. American engineer and inventor, Dean Kamen, founded For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) in 1989. FIRST is a global organization that works to promote STEM through challenges in robotics for children ranging from 6 to 18 years old. FIRST holds four separate programs, including First Lego League (FLL) and First Lego League Jr. (FLL Jr.). FLL and FLL Jr. require participants to design, build and solve a simulated real world engineering problem using LEGOS. The team has worked to expose robotics to younger members of their community by promoting programs within FIRST that are designed for children that are not yet old enough to participate in FTC. The Bot Boizz created a subgroup within their team to work on promoting both FLL and FLL Jr., which aimed to get more children at younger ages exposed to robotics. Brookline High School junior Calder Shen, the subgroup leader, has been working to involve more children in FLL and FLL Jr. by helping parents start their own FLL and FLL Jr. teams. Calder set up several parent information sessions in September in which she will go into further detail about how to start FLL and FLL Jr. teams. For parents and guardians interested in starting an FLL or FLL Jr. team, they need a team of up to six kids for FLL Jr. and up to 10 kids for FLL, plus at least two adult coaches. Second, the coach needs to create a FIRST account to register the team and learn more about getting the parts required for building the robot. Next, the coach registers the team. Lastly, the coach needs to buy the materials and parts required for making the robot. More information, including a flyer designed by Calder with information about upcoming parent information sessions, is available on the Bot Boizz's website: https://www.brooklinerobotics.org/. Thank you for your time and consideration of this worthy endeavor. Sincerely,Sara GonzalezMember of the BBots