STEM Night Success at Maple Elementary
Last week, our outreach team visited Maple Elementary School for their annual STEM Night, and it was an incredible experience for both our team members and the young students we met.
Inspiring Future Engineers
Over 150 students and their families attended the event, and our booth was one of the most popular attractions. We brought our robot from last season to demonstrate, and the kids were absolutely fascinated watching it move around and pick up objects.
“The best part was seeing their faces light up when we let them drive the robot with a controller,” said Emily, our Outreach Lead. “You could see the exact moment when they realized that they could build something like this too.”
Hands-On Activities
We set up several hands-on stations for the kids to explore:
Build Challenge
Using simple building blocks and connectors, kids had 10 minutes to build the tallest tower they could. This taught them about structural stability and the iterative design process (when towers fell, they learned and rebuilt!).
Code a Robot
Using a simplified block-coding interface on tablets, kids could program a small robot to navigate through a maze. Many of them picked it up faster than we expected!
Ask an Engineer
Team members answered questions about robotics, what it’s like being on an FTC team, and how they got interested in STEM. Some of our most common questions:
- “How do you make the robot move by itself?”
- “What happens if the robot breaks during a match?”
- “Can I join a robotics team?”
Growing Our Community
Events like this are core to who we are as a team. FIRST’s mission isn’t just about building robots - it’s about inspiring young people to explore STEM fields and develop critical skills.
We collected contact information from several families interested in:
- Our Jr. FLL team for younger students
- Middle school FTC team opportunities
- High school team recruitment for 8th graders
Thank You
Special thanks to:
- Ms. Johnson and the Maple Elementary PTA for hosting us
- Our mentor Dr. Patel for driving the equipment trailer
- Grace for creating the awesome activity instruction cards
- Everyone who volunteered their Saturday evening
Want Us at Your School?
We love doing outreach events! If you’re interested in having our team visit your school, library, or community organization, please contact us. We can customize our presentation for different age groups and event formats.
Follow us on Instagram @teamrobotics for more photos from STEM Night!