“We’re not using kids to build robots—we’re using robots to build kids.”
-Dean Kamen, Founder of FIRST®
While robot performance is an important feature of any FIRST® team, we also put a strong emphasis on having a positive effect on our community. In FRC®, Impact refers to a team’s ability to spread the mission of FIRST® within their school, community, and beyond.
Being the only FRC® team in Boulder City, we take pride in contributing to our city in 4 primary ways: Creating a STEM culture, expanding access to STEM education, supporting our fellow FIRST® teams, and giving back to our communities.
Creating STEM Culture
Increasing awareness for STEM programs is the first step in creating public support for these programs. We put robotics in the Boulder City public eye by participating in exhibition events, school assemblies, and other school events.
We also regularly appear in the Boulder City Review, the primary newspaper in Boulder City. This is our way of getting our message to a broad audience in our area.
Expanding Access
We started a robotics team at a middle school that had no other STEM programs available to their students, introducing these kids to robotics for the first time in their lives.
We also run our own robotics workshops and camps using curriculum that we developed ourselves. We have published this curriculum on our website to allow other teams and organizations to use it to easily run their own programs.
Supporting FIRST® Teams
We actively mentor 5 FIRST® teams: 3 FLL® teams and 2 FTC teams. We have spent over 200 hours working with these teams.
Our team has also volunteered over 300 hours at FIRST® events, reaching an estimated 150+ teams.
Giving Back
STEM outreach is great but we also take part in many additional community service projects. Some of the activities we have supported include food packing with Feed the Funnel, running a food pantry, and community events in our area.
All-in-all, the High Scalers have contributed over 1,200 hours to volunteer projects serving our community.
