Even though this is the off-season, we’ve been really busy since returning from Atlanta. Aside from patching up the robot and straightening up the lab, we’ve been involved in several important outreach events. We had one very busy weekend of outreach just a couple of weeks ago.
On May 21, several Space Cookies (not including me) spent a sunny Friday at Great America to demonstrate our robot as part of Great America Physics Day. This is a day in which the park is opened to physics, science, and math classes from all over the peninsula whose teachers bring them to experience a real-world physics lesson. Several other FIRST teams were at the park demonstrating their robot as well, and those who went had a blast.
Fixing the robot at Great America (photo by Callie)
The next morning, we headed up to our sponsor Intuitive Surgical’s headquarters for their open house, where we had a chance to test-drive their surgical robot, the da Vinci, and receive a tour of their manufacturing facility. It was a very cool event.
Test-driving the Intuitive Surgical robot (photo by Callie)
Later that day, we drove to San Mateo to participate in the annual Maker Faire, an event dedicated to science, art, engineering, and a do-it-yourself mindset, and a celebration of all the cool creations that can be made with your hands and mind. We talked to visitors and demonstrated our robot at a booth sponsored by WRRF, the Western Regional Robotics Forum. We had a chance to talk to so many cool people, some of whom had heard of FIRST and were excited to see a FIRST booth at the Faire, and others who had never heard of this organization and were amazed by what a group of high-schoolers could accomplish in six weeks! We had a great time showing people the inner workings of our robot, telling them about our team, and spreading the word of FIRST.
Emily
This way to ROBOTS! (photo by Callie)