Outreach

Maker Faire

According to the Calgary Maker Faire website, "Maker Faire is a gathering of fascinating, curious people who enjoy learning and who love sharing what they can do. From engineers to artists to scientists to crafters, Maker Faire is a venue for these "makers" to show hobbies, experiments, projects."

For two years, we have had a booth at Maker Faire to show off FIRST robotics and get people interested in STEAM.

2022

After the end of the Freight Frenzy season, we participated in the 2022 Calgary Maker Faire to spread awareness about first robotics. We were also there with the FLL, FRC, and other FTC teams from our organization (Alberta Tech Alliance Association).

We let people drive our Freight Frenzy robot an try to place blocks on the wobble platform (a game piece from Freight Frenzy). This gained the interest of many people, even if they weren't within the age range to participate in FTC. Some adults even commented they wished there was something similar to this for adults. If a kid was interested, but were too young for FTC, we prompted them to look into our FLL teams.

We also invited people to our open house which we were planning on hosting at our buildspace in a few weeks.

2023

After the success of Maker Faire in 2022, we decided to go again. This time we had enough space to have a full FTC field for our robot to drive on. Our organization was also able to set up our whole FRC field where robots were also driving around.

Similar to 2022, we let people drive our robot around and try to place cones on a few junctions. We placed less junctions on the field than what would be on the actual game field so it was easier. This gained the interest of many kids and adults. We both directed them to the ATAA website and suggested they explore FIRST teams and programs in their area.

Beakerhead

According to the beakerhead website, "Beakerhead is an extraordinary movement that sparks curiosity, fuels imagination, and ignites collaboration between art, science and engineering. Our mission is to inspire a sense of wonder and exploration by showcasing the intersection of creativity and innovation."

Like Maker Faire, we have had a booth at Maker Faire to show off FIRST robotics and get people interested in STEAM.

2022

Simular to Maker Faire, we were sharing a booth with the other teams in our organization where all of the teams were showing off their robots.

There was enough room to set up a field, so we had two of our robots driving around, our main robot from Freight Frenzy, and a blank robot chassis.

2023

Since beakerhead was such a success in 2022, we decided to bring Kevin this year! There wasn't room for a whole field, but we still had room for a few tiles and junctions.

Because we didn't have a whole field, we didn't want the kids controlling the chassis in case they drove into anybody, but we still let them control the elevator and claw.

At a few points, we had a whole line of kids excitedly waiting for their turn to drive. If they were interested we told them about FIRST robotics and our program, as well as directing them to the FLL and FRC areas which were also run by our organization, ATAA.

Open House

In 2022, we hosted an open house at our buildspace along with the other teams in out organization. We showed off everything that our FLL, FTC, and FRC teams do. In the end, over 100 people came through the doors and over 20 people were put on the FTC waitlist.

Bottles for Bots

Bottles for bots is a fundraising program where we encourage friends, family, and ourselves to donate bottles which we turn in and use as funding for all of the teams in Alberta Tech Alliance Association.

3D Printed Nets

A speech language pathologist with Pediatric Community Rehabilitation reached out and requested we design a 3D printed net for them. They use toys to encourage younger children to speak but they aren't able to use any mini nets found in stores because the fabric-like net material isn't washable. So, we designed a fully 3D printed set of nets, hockey sticks, and pucks for them to use. Along with the nets, we included pamphlets about first and our team inside the box so they could learn about FIRST, and encourage their patients to join a FIRST team if they are interested. Since the initial request, we have continued to print the design for other workers at the workplace.

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