Here’s another team story from the FIRST championship in Atlanta next week! I had the opportunity to ask a few teams some questions, check ’em out!
FIRST Tech Challenge Team 32: Einstein’s Daughters
Einstein’s Daughters is an all-girl robotics team from San Diego. They’ve been in the world championship four years in a row. This season they’ve been fundraising for an orphanage in Haiti and raised $1400 so far!
Becky Stern: Why are you excited to bring your team to FIRST this year?
Caitlin, age 17: We are so excited to bring our robot, Jiggy, and our team to the World Championships in Atlanta, Georgia for the fourth year in a row! The FIRST Championship is such an amazing experience. We compete on the floor of the Georgia Dome in front of thousands of people! We get to meet teams from all over the world who love science and technology just as much as we do! It’s so much fun to be an environment that celebrates learning and innovation.
Katie, age 16: I am excited about having the team compete in FIRST again this year because it gives all of the girls on the team the chance to show the true potential we have for being future engineers or business leaders because of our team working and collaboration abilities.
Becky: What’s been the most rewarding experience in the program so far?
Caitlin: I think the most rewarding experience for our team so far is seeing our growth over the past four years. Our first year, our robot was extremely simple. When we first started, we didn’t know how to screw screws, let alone build a whole robot. But as our knowledge grew, our robots got better and better. Our robot this year, Jiggy, has multiple components, can excel in all aspects of the challenge, and required many power tools to build! It’s great to have such tangible evidence of our improvements!
Katie: The most rewarding experience we have had as a team was creating a non-profit organization called Robots Inspiring Science and Engineering (RISE) and with that 501c3 being able to not only share our love for science and engineering with others but being able to show our passion for what is going on around the world. The most rewarding experience that has come out of RISE was being able to raise money for Haiti at the San Diego Regional Tournament which occurred 3 days after the Haiti earthquake. HotShots! for Haiti, our fundraiser, raised over $1,400 for God’s Littlest Angels orphanage in Haiti. We wouldn’t have been this successful if we hadn’t had help from all the other FIRST FTC teams at the tournament and the inspiration from FIRST to look outside ourselves and find ways to use science and engineering to make the world a better place.
Becky: What makes your team awesome/special?
Caitlin: We have an unfaltering belief in the importance of reaching out beyond our own robot and into the community. We started a non-profit organization to increase kids’ exposure to robotics, and we attend countless community events demonstrating our robot and talking about FIRST. We also try to help the world on a larger scale. At our San Diego regional tournament, we held a fundraiser for Haiti and raised $1400. In Atlanta, we’re raising money for the Girl Effect, an organization that helps keep girls in developing nations in schools. We want to remind teams of the reason we all try to innovate and create: to make the world a better place.
Katie: Our team is special because we started out as six girls who didn’t really know each other and now, four years later, we are best friends. We have the ability to combine our diverse ideas and build on each others strengths not only to make a great robot, but to be a cohesive team that excels both on the field and in reaching out to the community. We also all have the same goals to get more kids (especially girls) interested in science and engineering and working together as a team we know we can make an impact.
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