DC Metro FIRST

The activities for this reporting period can be divided into several distinct areas of DC Metro FIRST activities.  The DC, MD and VA FIRST staff and local teams have attended many STEM events at the local and National levels. These outreach events are designed to recruit students, teams, coaches /mentors and sponsors.  

We have a robot driving activity where the students can earn a robot “driver’s license” which draws kids to the exhibit/booth to learn more about STEM, FIRST and robotics. Parents learn more about how their kids, schools and other organization can get involved.  They are a great opportunity to take and FIRST and STEM to the local neighborhoods. The hands-on activity is a highlit of many of the STEM Events.

We have hosted several FIRST Alumni Events in the DC, MD and VA area. These are designed to re-engage young adults who participated in FIRST as students. If you are a FIRST Alumi, please join us..The FIRST Alumni Facebook link is: www.facebook.com/groups/FIRSTChesapeakeAlumni/

FIRST events offer opportunities for FIRST alumi, sponsors and the general public to volunteer and help as we try to maximize the number of students and teams supported.  If you or friends/co-workers are interested, please contact us about volunteering and/or becoming a coach or mentor. All FIRST events across all four programs are free to the public. These events are great way for you and your families learn about FIRST. If you are interested in volunteering for FIRST events go to www.firstinspires.org/ways-to-help/volunteer

The 2016 - 2017 FIRST Robotic seasons for four programs (FRC, FTC, FLL and FLL Jr) are in various stages of completion across the region. You can learn more about the FIRST progression of programs at: www.firstinspires.org/  The First Tech Challenge and FIRST Lego League have or will be finishing their seasons shortly.thru out DC, MD and VA. Teams will be recognized for their efforts as a team and the quality of their projects and robots. 

We provide training sessions to teams to get the techincal and non-technical info they need to be successful teams. This training is critical to developing the hard and soft skills for coaches/mentors as well as students. One of the major training actvities completed during the reporting period was the FRC Workshop on Dec 10^th in George Mason H.S. in Falls Church, VA..  Approximately 175 students and mentors attended the workshop. Sessions included inspection, safety, programming, project management, drivetrains, 3D printing, game strategies, CAD, pneumatics. and scouting.

The FRC kick-off was held on Jan 7^th at Wilson H.S. in Washington, DC.  The kick-off video for the 2017 STEAMWorks game can be seen at: https://www.google.com/search?q=FRC+2017+video&rlz=1C1SFXN_enUS514US520&oq=FRC+2017+video&aqs=chrome..69i57.4967j0j8&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8  The teams were excited to see the game reveal and get the build season underway. The FRC teams have been busy building their robots which must be completed by Feb 21^st.  George Mason H.S. in Falls Church has built a mock-up of the game field and it is available to any team wishing to practice on it.

As part of support to FIRST Outreach activities, additional parts and kits were purchased this year to provide more and updated FTC and FLL robots. These have been and will continue to be used to demonstrate the actual robot(s) students would be using as part of the FTC and FLL. A complete FTC practice field was purchased and set-up for ant FTC teams to come and test their robots prior to copetions. The kits and field would nt be possible with donations raised via GlobalGiving donations.

The following links provide detailed information including schedules for events.

www.firstchesapeake.org

http://va-dcfll.org/ Thanks for your previous donations.