Outreach Projects
FTC isn't only about the robot game, but also about reaching our to the community to share about the FIRST program and spread FIRST values.
As a team, we aim to be very involved in our community to help give back to the community who has supported us for so many years. One of our biggest goals as a team is to consistently set up outreach projects for our community, as community service but also to help the community learn more about our team and FIRST Robotics.
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Also included in our outreach projects is reaching out to other mentors and teams in FTC and STEM, another very important part of the program.
Holiday Bazaar
(November 19, 2022) During our town's annual holiday bazaar, we were asked to
Doughboy Fundraiser
(October 8, 2022) We ran a fundraiser at one of the local stores that sponsor us, the Klondike Doughboy. The money raised was used to help support a local man who is currently battling cancer.
Burgerfeeds
(October 2022) As well as running our own burger feed fundraiser, we also helped out with the FLL burger feed and the cross country burger feed, to make sure that they had enough workers for the event!
Meeting with the Cybernetic Elks
(October 22, 2022) We set up a meeting with the Cybernetic Elks, and one of their members met with us and helped us finish setting up Android Studio!
FLL Mentoring
(August-December 2022) This season we've been mentoring and assistant coaching our local FLL robotics team, the Spark Sharks, at nearly all of their practices! We help them with presenting, project building, programming, and team work, and also attend their field trips and interviews!
Robotics Camps!
(August 2022) This is our second year with robotics camps! We held 3 different camps, based on age group (3-5, 6-11, 12+), and taught kids the basics of programming, robot design, teamwork, and even 3-D modeling!
Event Babysitting
(July 23, 2022) While a local bar held a wine tasting, our team helped out by babysitting kids for a few hours, while their parents went to the event! We ate pizza, played games, and watched Ratatouille!
Fourth of July
(July 4, 2022) We volunteered to help scoop out and manage Skagway's annual Ducky Derby, a lottery where ducks race to the finish line at the end of a creek!
Summer Solstice
(June 18, 2022) Every year, we help out at our community's annual summer solstice celebration by running games and activities for the local kids!
Zooms with Professors
(Summer 2022) Bethany helped set us up with some of her BYU professors in engineering! They taught us about different career paths in STEM, and answered any questions we had! It was very helpful for our seniors who will be attending college next year!
Meeting with Bethany!
(Summer 2022) From June to August, we met with Bethany, a BYU mechanical engineering student, every week. She helped teach us CAD using programs such as OnShape and Solidworks! She also taught us the basics of Java!
Prom
(May 14th) We helped set up and prepare for prom by coming early, decorating, and helping put out snacks and food! Afterwards, we also stayed to clean up the decorations and put away supplies!
Church Yard Cleanup
(May 9, 2022) To help support the church that we practice at, we volunteered to clean up the yard by trimming the hedges and trees!
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Mother's Day Flowers
(May 8, 2022) For Mother's Day this year, we went around town and delivered flowers to widows around town.
Cleansweep
(April 27, 2022) Since our town was unable to have our annual cleansweep at the usual time this year, the Prickles volunteered to go to some of the most popular and frequented area and clean up trash before the tourist season began!
Diversity in Stem Webinar
(April 15, 2022)Â This webinar hosted by the Suit Bots had a variety of guest speakers who talked about their experiences being women in STEM and engineering fields! We learned a lot and enjoyed listened to their stories and experiences!
Open House
(March 13, 2022) We hosted our first-ever community open house! We had a lot of people attend and taught them about what we do in robotics! They also were able to see our robot and other projects we've been working on!
Meeting with other Teams
(February 18, 2022) We also met with the Cybernetic Elks, an FTC team from Oregon! We shared our robot designs, and also discussed the possibility of meeting with them again to discuss programming with Andriod Studio, and they offered to mentor us in it!
Oracle Engineer Meeting
(January 29, 2022) We scheduled a zoom interview with Luis Cabrera, the Oracle Senior Manager of product development. He taught us a lot about the different jobs and fields in engineering, and we were able to ask questions about the ones that interested us! He also taught us about his own job and the best parts about working in engineering.
Software Engineer Meeting
(January 22, 2022) We met with a software engineer and Space Dynamics Laboratory, Ben Jensen, and he taught us about his job as well as past projects! We learned a lot about his field, and he also gave us great organization and management tips!
Christmas Toy Drive
(December 2021) This year we hosted our 2nd Christmas gift drive. Our community donated toys and gifts, and we wrapped them and distributed them before Christmas.
Library STEM Project
(December 2021) We worked with the Skagway Public Library to order STEM kits, such as snap circuits, that can be checked out for public use. We also got one of our store sponsors, Grizzly General, to carry snap circuit kits!
Meeting with other Teams
(December 18, 2021) We scheduled two meetings with the Tactical Tech Tomato Turtles where we met through zoom and discussed outreach projects we've done as well as CAD. They gave us useful insight on CAD software and helped us through some of our problems!
Mentoring FLL Teams
(2021-2022 Season) This year we mentored our local FLL team, the Cargo Crocs, in robot game and presentation. We have past experience in FLL and were excited to share our knowledge!
DDF Tournament
(October 15-16, 2021) We volunteered to run the information booth at our school's DDF tournament this year! We helped time events, as well as show DDF participants and judges where to go!
Robotics Camps
(October-November 2021) We taught simple programming, robot design, and teamwork to 65 students of all ages through 4 week-long camps this fall! It was really fun and a great way to spread FIRST to the kids in our community!
Escape Room
(July 30, 2021) We went and completed the Skagway Escape room as a team! We finished it in 30 minutes and set a new record! The escape room required us to work together as a team (it was just like a team-building!) and it was lots of fun to test our teamwork outside of robotics!
Solstice Games
(June 20, 2021) We volunteered to run the games for kids at our annual summer solstice celebration. We did face painting, chalk, as well as other fun outdoor games!
Webinar with Female Quotient
(February 9, 2021) We set up a webinar with Anna Blue from Female Quotient and invited other FTC Teams. She gave an insightful presentation about gender bias in the STEM community and workplace, and we had time to ask questions afterward.
Meeting with the Physics Teacher
(January 13, 2021) Today we met with our school's physics teacher to discuss how to ensure our robot would be consistent. With his help, we are able to make sure the angle of our ramp and the power of our motor will allow us to accurately shoot the foam rings into their goals.
Christmas Gift Drive
(December 2020)Â During this Christmas season, we hosted a Christmas Gift Drive Event for our community. We collected gifts throughout November and December, and then wrapped and distributed them in late December.
Halloween I-Spy Wall
(October 2020) We set up an "I-Spy" Wall as a fun COVID-Safe activity for our community. We cut out cardboard backdrops, hung lights, and put up tons of Halloween decorations. Then we created a list of "items" for the community to find that were hidden in the winodw. If finished, you won a free popcorn!
Kone Kompany Fundraiser
(October 3, 2020) One of the fundraisers we've done in past years was a fundraiser at our local ice cream store. After the summer season and when the ice cream store is officially closed, they allow us to use their extra stock to sell for one big fundraiser to the community. This is also a great outreach project because we leave out information on our team and FTC as well as our robot for the community to view.
Fourth of July Games
(July 4, 2020) Normally Skagway has lots of games and booths set up all over the downtown area in celebration of Independence Day. Since many people didn't set up their booths this year, the Prickles set up a game area on 5th Avenue for kids to play games and win prizes. All of the games and prizes were sanitized and safe.
Decorating the Kone Kompany Window
(April 27, 2020) Since we can't go through with our planned outreach event. We tried to lift people's spirits with happy messages and decorations like these hearts we hung on our ice cream store's window.
Easter Porcupines
(April 11/12, 2020) This week we made tiny porcupines out of salt dough, dyed them, and made their eyes and quills with toothpicks. Then we put them with a small note in easter eggs and hid the eggs all over town. We hope this will lift some spirits during the hard COVID season!
Book Giveaway
(March, 2020) A couple of years ago, one of our fundraising events was a book sale. This year we used the leftovers from that sale and organized and left them out for the community to take in a social-distanced, safe manner.