Global Teacher Prize Finalist Creates Change With Robotics

Feb 27, 2018 By FIRST Staff


Teacher and FIRST mentor Glenn Lee, who co-founded Hawaii’s first robotics-related program, has been named a top ten finalist for the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize, selected from over 30,000 entries, for his pioneering efforts to ignite passion for STEM in his students through robotics.

INSPIRATION IS EVERWHERE

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FIRST team working on robot

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Grant partnership helps break down barriers to STEM access in First Nations communities

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Alberta Distance Learning Center

FIRST STEM Community

The Alberta Distance Learning Center (ADLC) is breaking down access barriers to hands-on, community-based STEM learning experiences in First Nations communities in Alberta with the support of a FIRST STEM Equity Community Innovation Grant. The grant helped establish and grow robotics teams at three First Nations schools, including funding ADLC curriculum development, First Nations teacher training, and a celebratory robotics and cultural event.

 

Background
Young people from First Nations communities in Canada experience graduation rates that are lower than the Canadian average, often attributed to low attendance rates and skill shortages. To engage students in school and help build STEM literacy, educational programs must provide hands-on, community-based opportunities that align with Indigenous ways of learning, as well as break down barriers to access in their remote and rural communities.
 

First Nations schools add robotics
In 2016, the Alberta Distance Learning Center (ADLC), which offers flexible distance learning to help students gain skills and earn credits toward graduation, received a FIRST STEM Equity Community Innovation Grant to establish and grow robotics teams at three First Nations schools in Alberta. The funding also supported ADLC curriculum development, First Nations teacher training, and a celebratory robotics and cultural event.
 

Enabling community-based learning
Through ADLC, students could gain access to credits for participating meaningfully on FIRST teams. FIRST LEGO League teams learned to build, program, and present. FIRST Robotics Competition teams built 120-pound robots over six weeks to compete in an off-reserve competition. FIRST engaged the students in STEM and helped increase school attendance.

“We’ve never had robotics on our reserve. We felt it was important to help people learn about robotics because from robots you can launch careers into greater things: programming, building, design, repair,” – Lloyd Verreault, teacher/mentor, FIRST Robotics Competition team “Alexis Tech Warriors”


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Overcoming the STEM Opportunity Gap

Feb 20, 2018 By Donald E. Bossi, President of FIRST


Kids of all backgrounds, capabilities, and social circumstances are needed to address the world’s toughest challenges. FIRST President Donald E. Bossi explores how offering equitable opportunities and pathways can ensure all kids feel welcome, have a voice, and get an equal shot at finding success.

INSPIRATION IS EVERWHERE

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Matt Kallerud

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FIRST is an unforgettable experience for future engineers

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Matt Kallerud

FIRST Alum

FIRST Alum Matt Kallerud is from FIRST Robotics Competition Team 1714 “MORE Robotics” in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, which he joined in the high school team’s first year; he says it was an extremely valuable and unforgettable experience. He later graduated from the Milwaukee School of Engineering and the University of California Davis. Matt now works as a civil/environmental engineer at Carollo Engineers, where he designs water and wastewater treatment plants. 

What is your favorite FIRST memory?
There are so many! Do I have to pick just one? My first year was our team’s first year, so there were a lot of very long nights during build season trying to figure things out together as a team. Our hard work eventually paid off after winning Rookie All Star and a berth to the FIRST Championship in St. Louis! I can’t decide between that, winning our first match (as the driver!), or long bus rides to the competitions (where another teammate taught me how to solve the Rubik’s Cube). My entire FIRST experience was unforgettable and extremely valuable to me.

You’ve had mentors, or mentored others, through FIRST; what advice do you have to share with others?
Question everything: the first answer you get isn’t always the right answer and is rarely ever the best answer. If something doesn’t make sense to you, question it until you understand it.

What did you do after becoming a FIRST Alum?
Two teammates and I went on to the Milwaukee School of Engineering; one of them joined me in the mechanical engineering program. During the summer after my sophomore year, I worked as an intern at the NASA Langley Research Center. I helped investigate programming challenges on the electron beam freeform fabrication machine (EBF3). During my junior and senior years and college, I worked as an intern at Rockwell Automation (a FIRST Strategic Partner and sponsor of Team 1714) working with their power monitoring equipment.

After getting my bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering, I attended graduate school at the University of California – Davis for civil & environmental engineering. During graduate school, I worked full-time for over a year at Central Contra Costa Sanitary District, a wastewater treatment plant in Martinez, California, where I helped performed a pilot study on an advanced treatment process. After graduating with my master’s degree from UC Davis, I got a job at Carollo Engineers where I design water and wastewater treatment plants.

What are some technologies or innovations that you think will change the way we find or use water in the future?
Water reuse is the future; every year, more water is being recycled. The better the technologies become to clean water more efficiently, the more of it we’re going to be able to reuse. This will help communities that don’t have lakes or rivers and get their water from the ground. If they pump too much water out of the ground, the ground can literally sink! It’s happened lots of places all around the world.

Learn more about Matt’s career and his thoughts on protecting our water supply on the FIRST LEGO League blog.

Visit firstinspires.org/alumni for more FIRST Alumni spotlights. Share your story for a chance to be featured.


Living and Learning, Even in the Hardest of Conditions

Jan 17, 2018 By Alma Bertoni, Coach, FIRST LEGO League Team “CSI Cybernetic Lions”


Alma Bertoni, a FIRST LEGO League coach and teacher from San Juan, Puerto Rico, shares how her students have persevered since Hurricane Maria devastated their island, as well as their journey exploring solutions to help their community through HYDRO DYNAMICS, the 2017/2018 FIRST LEGO League Challenge.

INSPIRATION IS EVERWHERE

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FIRST Team 120 "Cleveland's Team"

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FIRST inspires Cleveland’s championship team

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Youth Technology Academy

FIRST Robotics Competition Team 120 “Cleveland’s Team,” Cleveland, Ohio

A couple of months before the Cleveland Cavaliers won the city's first professional sports title in 52 years, FIRST Robotics Competition Team 120 "Cleveland's Team" brought a world championship to the Ohio city as part of the Winning Alliance of the 2016 FIRST Championship.

The team unites 18 high schools in Cleveland, Ohio's public-school system, giving students a safe place after school to be themselves, learn, grow, and even earn college credits through Cuyahoga Community College. "There are students who heretofore would probably never, ever consider pursuing not only STEM-related activities, but pursuing higher education," says William Gary, executive vice president of Cuyahoga Community College. "This is an avenue for ... encouraging them to pursue positions and opportunities that will help elevate them out of their current economic situations."


INSPIRATION IS EVERWHERE

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Bob Nichols - Director, FIRST Robotics Community Center at Kettering University

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University’s FIRST Center becomes community STEM hub

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Bob Nichols

Director, FIRST Robotics Community Center at Kettering University

I first introduced FIRST robotics to Kettering University, my alma mater, in 1997. Back then, an old gymnasium on campus was being used for storage and I was able to place a piece of carpet down in the corner for community teams to practice on.  My colleague, Dr. Henry Kowalski, recognized the space as an opportunity for FIRST community teams supported and/or sponsored by Kettering. In 2014, the FIRST Robotics Community Center opened its doors on our Flint, Michigan, campus.

Home to eight FIRST Robotics Competition teams, the Center includes a full-sized practice field, a machine shop, and a design and programming lab. Beyond that, our Center offers so much more than a warm space for teams to meet and store their equipment during Michigan winters. The FIRST Robotics Community Center is a year-round STEM education hub meeting several needs in the Flint community. Here’s how:

We are a collaboration space
The eight high-school FIRST Robotics Competition teams based at the FIRST Robotics Community Center consistently collaborate with each other on strategy, design, build, and resources. This collaborative atmosphere exists even though they are creating different robots and will be competing against each other. We also house practice fields for FIRST programs and host end-of-year and off-season competitions for FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST Tech Challenge, and FIRST LEGO League. I see centers similar to ours as the future of FIRST, particularly for high schools that don’t have the resources, space, equipment, or mentors to build robots and/or host FIRST teams and events.

We are a knowledge hub
One of the biggest challenges for FIRST teams is finding mentors. Finding teachers/mentors within the schools are critical for the long-term sustainability of the programs. The FIRST Center has partnered with Flint Community Schools and the Crim Fitness Foundation, a nonprofit organization based in Flint that leads after-school programming at each school, to train teachers, mentors, and students. For teachers who are new to robotics and may be somewhat intimidated, the training really helps excite and motivate them, and often I see a light go on!  They are then anxious to take it back to the classroom.  We are now offering teacher training to other school districts.

We host many FIRST summer camps (27 last summer) for elementary, middle, and high school students and a preseason fall workshop series that is open to any FIRST Robotics Competition teams (mentors and students) in Michigan to attend for programming, electrical, mechanical, and machine shop training – at no charge. Programming workshops include C++, Java, LabVIEW, and more.  These workshops really help teams prepare for the next FIRST season.

We recently started a series called “Engineering Inspiration Talks.” We invite technology leaders to talk to students and share their cool technology. We want to inspire and motivate students to see there are so many different choices for career paths.

We are a STEM outreach center
Reaching out into the community is part of our mission at Kettering. Our goal was to get involved in the community and get more kids interested in STEM careers, and FIRST is a key way we accomplish that.

Last summer, Ford Motor Company sponsored a two-week summer camp at the Center for Flint High School students, in which students received free SAT Prep training, learned to program an autonomous Ford Mustang, and designed and built a robot to compete at the end of the camp. Two students from the summer camp are now on the Flint F.I.R.E. FIRST Robotics Competition team, including a programmer who I hope will be a future Kettering student. He was the key to getting the robot built.

Through a grant, we’re working with Flint Community Schools to pilot a FIRST LEGO League camp at an elementary school and to support five FIRST LEGO League teams started this year. We hope to add 12 or 13 more teams by the end of this year. We’ve received significant grant program and foundation support. It is vital that we serve our community.

We are a university
This year, approximately 30 percent of Kettering’s incoming freshmen are FIRST alumni. In fact, in partnership with FIRST, Kettering University awards up to 50 scholarships to FIRST alumni each year, with a five-year value of up to $25,000. Kettering is proud to have awarded over $4 million dollars in FIRST Scholarships since 1999.

Some of our undergraduate students eagerly help us manage the FIRST Center through college work-study, and many Kettering students and FIRST alumni mentor or coach FIRST teams. It creates a strong bond between our Kettering students and high school students from Flint and the surrounding communities.

Our Center’s location is critical to its success. We’re on the campus of a university. FIRST teams and Flint students gain access to our students, faculty, and alumni – and become more comfortable in the university environment. Kettering students get to take advantage of their engineering skills and work within their community. That’s a win-win-win for FIRST, for the greater Flint community, and for Kettering.

Learn how FIRST is closing the STEM gap in Michigan.

 


INSPIRATION IS EVERWHERE

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FIRST Alum Sarah Rudasill

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FIRST enabled my pursuit of medical research

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Sarah Rudasill

FIRST Alum

FIRST Alum Sarah Rudasill, from FIRST Robotics Competition Team 4266, the New Oxford GhostBotics, from New Oxford, Pennsylvania, received the Bart Kamen Memorial FIRST Scholarship. Participating in FIRST inspired Sarah toward research in the translational sciences, and her FIRST Scholarship has provided financial freedom and mentorship as she pursues an academic surgical career.

What did you do after becoming a FIRST Alum?
After I graduated high school, I attended Wake Forest University. I graduated in 2017 with a degree in Economics and now I’m at UCLA for medical school.

What are your future plans?
I intend to pursue an academic surgical career, where I will balance patient care, clinical research, and teaching responsibilities. I’m so excited to study medicine, see patients in our volunteer clinic, and conduct clinical research.

How has your FIRST experience impact your post-graduation life?
FIRST demonstrated how abstract scientific principles could be applied to practical problems, which inspired me to pursue research in the translational sciences. Medicine is a fantastic avenue for translating scientific discoveries into tangible improvements in healthcare. Being the recipient of the Dr. Bart Kamen Memorial FIRST Scholarship gave me the financial freedom to pursue research projects of interest, and I am fortunate to have met many great researchers and physicians who have shaped my career trajectory.

You shared that you’ve made and kept great FIRST friends – any advice to current Participants on how to do that?
I was a fortunate recipient in the first class of Bart Kamen Scholars, so I’ve kept in touch with other scholars and subsequent classes. I look forward to mentoring future generations of Bart Kamen Scholars through the long medical training process.

What is your favorite FIRST memory?
I helped to found a brand-new team, and our first competition in Baltimore will always be a fond memory. We didn’t come close to winning, but it was a thrill to be surrounded by so many passionate and brilliant future scientists.

What is the best piece of advice you have received?
When starting any new endeavor, your attitude and effort will determine the outcome. 

Visit firstinspires.org/alumni for more FIRST Alumni spotlights. Share your story for a chance to be featured.


INSPIRATION IS EVERWHERE

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FIRST LEGO League team working on robot

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FIRST inspires my child to build, code, and create

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Christina Blais

Parent, FIRST LEGO League, Winsted, Connecticut

When I heard about the FIRST LEGO League program, I knew it would be a great idea for my son to join. I was excited about the new ideas my son would learn about engineering, teamwork, and good values. We were brand new to the program and weren't sure what to expect. His mentor, Justin Ivey (a FIRST AmeriCorps VISTA member), has been a good inspiration and has encouraged the team to bring out ideas they never thought they had.

My son enjoys building and programming the robots and creating a project from ground up with the help of his team members and encouragement from their mentor. He comes home excited to tell us about the new things he learned, whether it’s about coding the robot to complete a mission in the game, or a new fact about the water cycle for the team’s project. I’m glad that he joined FIRST LEGO League and to see the excitement it brought to my son. I can’t wait to see what the rest of the season has in store. 


INSPIRATION IS EVERWHERE

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Terri Willingham honored by Tampa Bay Lightning

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FIRST inspires community heroes

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Terri Willingham

FIRST Volunteer, Coach, Mentor, Florida; Former FIRST Regional Director

“In today’s world, the advances in STEM are booming, creating opportunities for today’s youth like never before. Terri Willingham will tell you these are only tools. If children aren’t educated in these fields, the advances mean nothing. So for the last 12 years, Terri has been volunteering to fully engage students of all ages with the STEM fields, introducing them to robotics, coding programs, digital asset development, and more. To date, her STEM efforts have positively impacted tens of thousands of young people across Florida. She’s worked tirelessly to inspire the next generation of leaders, builders, and dreamers to build better communities for tomorrow. And that’s why you, Terri, are our hero.” – Braydon Coburn, Tampa Bay Lightning

During the 2017-2018 season, the Tampa Bay Lightning honored Terri Willingham as a Lightning Community Hero. Willingham was recognized for her work providing guidance to schools and communities in the development of FIRST programs, as well as her work developing the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation’s Advanced Manufacturing and Robotics Center (AMRoC). Seeded by an Argosy Foundation grant, the center will be a FIRST hub for Central Florida and provide a training and talent pipeline for STEM careers in the area, giving youth a clear pathway to a high-paying future and adults an opportunity to improve their own earning potential.

Willingham, who received $50,000 from the Lightning Foundation and the Lightning Community Heroes program, donated $35,000 of the award to the Foundation for Community Driven Innovation (FCDI) for the ROBOTICON FIRST showcase and off-season event, as well as AMRoC. She donated the balance to other area nonprofits, most of whom partner with FCDI in the development and organization of local FIRST related programs and events, including St. Petersburg College Foundation, Tampa Bay Robotics Foundation, Metropolitan Ministries for their FIRST Tech Challenge team “Coding Hope,” and Central Florida Robotics via Polk State College Foundation.

“While I am deeply honored for the recognition, no one can be a community hero in a vacuum,” says Willingham. “The organizations I shared the award grant with are the real ‘community heroes’ – the people who believe in the long-term power of mentor-driven, character-based STEM education like FIRST offers. They see the big picture: how meaningful adult engagement that helps youth learn and succeed today makes a brighter future possible for all of us tomorrow. None of the great projects and programs I've been part of would be possible without the amazing community army of which I’m so grateful to be a part.”