Highlights of 2022 Summer Outreach

In contrast to the summers of 2020 and 2021 when we were 100% virtual, we finally got back to in-person outreach during the Summer of 2022. Read on to find out about how much fun we had this summer reaching people at outdoor events and camps,  including a camp that reached out to us in 2020 before the pandemic.

Open Streets Pittsburgh with our sponsor, ARGO AI

On June 26, 2022, a few members of the Girls of Steel went to the Open Streets Pittsburgh event held in the Strip District  to show off robots alongside Argo AI.  We had a fully assembled robot chassis and LEGO robots to display, along with our chassis robot kit available for kids to help build.  Kids loved getting to build and touch the robot, and we were able to talk to many families about our program and opportunities to get involved.  It was wonderful getting to work with our sponsor Argo AI!  We hope to have the opportunity to do it again soon.

Biotech in Action – a virtual program hosted by Lemelson-MIT and Biogen

At the end of EurekaFest, hosted at MIT, the BuzzBand team members were asked to present their project during a virtual program called BioTech in Action (BIA). Held three times over the summer, BIA sessions exposed high school students from across the country to different ways innovation and engineering are applied in the real world. During each of the sessions, the BuzzBand members presented their project and answered questions ranging anywhere from what skills are important to have a successful team to how to become inspired. Participating in BIA allowed the BuzzBand members to reach out to a wide community and help encourage more inventors.  We presented on June 28, July 19, and August 2.

AI for Teachers

This summer Carnegie Mellon University’s School of Computer Science gave high school teachers from the Pittsburgh area a chance to learn about AI and how to implement it in their classrooms. We were so lucky to be invited to also give them a presentation on June 29th about FIRST and how they could potentially implement them in their high schools as well. It was great to be able to share what we’ve been able to accomplish and hopefully inspire some of them to start their own teams to grow the Pittsburgh FIRST community!

Black Girls Drone

Girls of Steel went to Hosanna House on July 6th to present to the young girls attending the Black Girl’s Drone summer camp!  We told them all about our team and the opportunities that they have to be a part of Girls of Steel’s FLL or FTC teams. This event was an amazing opportunity to grow our DEI initiative to reach out to underrepresented communities and teach them about STEM! On July 7th we hosted a guest speaker from Near Earth Autonomy who presented to the students about their career pathway and showed videos of some of their amazing projects.  We hope to do more events at the Hosanna House in the future.

Lincoln Elementary School

We volunteered at Lincoln Elementary’s STEAM camp July 12-14 and ran activities for kids in kindergarten and fifth grade. Both groups started with a STEAM activity building bridges out of LEGOs and testing the strength for different loads. The younger kids built a FLL crane and the older group did the Girls of Steel robot chassis project. It was really exciting and rewarding to see how much the kids enjoyed the activities and were engaged in STEM. A memorable moment was when one kid felt accomplished after finishing one side of the chassis and said proudly, “I’m an engineer!” It was amazing to work with the teachers and volunteers at the camp and I hope in the future we will be back. 

Camp Gan Israel – Chabad Camp

Back in February 2020 the camp administrator for Camp Gan Israel contacted the Girls of Steel about teaching three STEM-focussed sessions at their 2020 summer camp.  Unfortunately we were not able to participate at the 2020 or 2021 camps due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Finally in July 2022 on July 18, 19, and 21, we were able to offer three sessions for kids at the Chabad Summer Camp located at the Environmental Charter School in Pittsburgh. We created stations catered to the different age groups of the kids at the camp, K to grade 5. The stations featured Snap Circuits, LEGO WeDo kits, LEGO Spike Prime robots, and the Girls of Steel Robot Chassis Project. The kids had so much fun building robots and being creative with Snap Circuits! They were so excited when the chassis project came together on the last day. The kids loved driving the robot around, and seeing all of their hard work pay off. Whether they had no experience with robotics, or were familiar with FLL, all of the kids had a great time learning about robotics and getting creative with their projects!

NASA CTO Presentation

On July 20th a group of 4 girls from Girls of Steel Robotics went to CMU to represent their team. The girls had the opportunity to talk with Dr. Bhavya Lal, the first woman to hold the position of the Associate Administrator for Technology, Policy, and Strategy. Furthermore, they talked Dr. Lal and her associates about the outreach portion of the team, where Girls of Steel reaches out to others, empowers girls, and demonstrates how STEM can impact people. The girls specifically mentioned the Chassis Project and BuzzBand, where they strive to help and empower others. By the end of the discussion, they connected with Dr. Lal, which allowed Girls of Steel to spread their message to NASA.

Girl Scouts Robot Chassis Workshop

A Girl Scout troop of six girls came to our practice field on July 14th to complete one of our most popular outreach events, the robot chassis project! The girls split up into two groups and managed to completely build two fully wired and drivable robots in less than 2 hours! It was amazing to see these girls, many of whom had absolutely no robot building experience, be able to create something that they could be very proud of. We have more events with scout troops coming up in the future which we are so excited for!

Intro to Scratch Summer Camp

This year’s Intro to Scratch Camp, August 8-10, was a great kickstarter to in-person Girls of Steel camps. Over the course of three days, the students learnt the basics of Scratch and culminated that knowledge into many amazing projects. On day 1, the kids set up and navigated their Scratch account, they got to know how to use “motion” and “event” blocks, and did tutorials on those topics to cement the concepts. The project was also introduced, where all the kids would have to create an animation, game, or story within Scratch surrounding the theme of mythical creatures. Day 2 consisted of all the campers learning about “look”, “sound”, “control”, “sensing”, and “operator” blocks as well as making a conversation between two sprites (characters that so the actions). After all the lessons, students had more time to build upon their projects. Finally, the last day, consisted of more project time and working with the FLL robots. The students had such a blast working with Spike Prime to code the robots, and they were so amazed to see it in action. To end the camp off, the kids shared their projects and robot demos! Everyone’s projects were incredible, with such unique elements. It was awesome to see the growth in their Scratch skills. Even families could come in and see what their child accomplished. Overall, the 2022 Intro to Scratch Camp was definitely a hit!

FLL Challenge Skills Camp

Girls of Steel was a week-long camp, August 15-19, that allowed the kids to get a taste of what it would be like to be on an FLL team. Throughout the week, the kids got to experience how to find solutions to real world problems, how presenting at competitions would work, and how to build/program SPIKE robots to complete the missions from last year. On the first day, we focused mainly on the outline of FLL and how to pseudo code missions. We also did a core values Kahoot which was very fun for the kids! On the second day, the kids learned all about the different types of sensors on a robot, and they did many challenges using each sensor. The third day was when we introduced the research aspect of FLL, and the kids spent the whole day coming up with different solutions on how to be more sustainable. The students got a chance to take a break from the research and complete a reverse engineering activity that involved taking apart laptops. They had so much fun doing this! The fourth day was dedicated to completing missions and building attachments for the robot. Finally, the last day was presentation and demo day, where the students got a chance to present their hard work to the rest of the kids and mentors. There was a mini scrimmage at the end as well to give the kids a chance to see what it is like to be at a real FLL competition. Many kids were thrilled with their experience at this camp and even joined for the 2022-2023 season!

GoSHacks Jr 

Girls of Steel had our first GoSHacks Jr in-person event this summer on August 20th! Kids from grades K-8 got to come into the practice field for an event where they made their own coding project, either by themselves or with a group. Every project had to relate to the theme of construction, and the kids had 3 ways they could complete the project; Spike Prime Lego robots, WeDo robot kits, or the programming site Scratch. At the end of the day, each group had the opportunity to present their projects to a mentor. We scored the projects and gave awards to the top 3 presenters in each age division! Throughout the day we saw the students learn about coding, use their creativity, and build friendships. Everyone left the event smiling, it was truly such a fun time! 

Team Neutrino presentation 

Over Google Meet on August 11th, we got to present the BuzzBand and the Farmbot projects to FIRST Robotics Competition team 3928 Team Neutrino (affiliated with the University of Iowa) from Ames, Iowa. We started off introducing ourselves and talking about Girls of Steel, which then led into explaining BuzzBand’s research process and product. The presentation then proceeded onto the Farmbot – one of our mentor’s research projects, geared to help agriculture, from climate change to improving production yields. Outreach with the Farmbot is starting soon to demonstrate the importance of agriculture robotics, and having connections to this team and the university allows for the Farmbot to expand. Talking about BuzzBand and the Farmbot goes to show how FIRST teams can take their own initiatives to create something impactful for the community. 

Mechanical Engineering Pathways Institute (MEPI)

We assisted at the Mechanical Engineering Pathways Institute alongside 3260 SHARP and 4467 Titanium Titans, two other local FRC teams. In this 2 week long camp, July 25 to August 5, we taught 15 high schoolers at the  Boys and Girls Club how to build an FRC robot. We decided to replicate 6328 Mechanical Advantage’s 2022 Rapid React robot, which made it to the Einstein field! The MEPI students created the whole robot and coded it in those 2 weeks with our guidance. At the end, they competed alongside us at the WVROX offseason competition on August 5 and 6 and ended up in 14th seed, picked up by 4467 Titanium Titans in the 7th alliance! It was amazing to be able to share what an FRC season looks like in a condensed, hectic 2 weeks – we learned a lot along the way too!

SCRA Summer Meetings

The Steel City Robotics Alliance (SCRA) is an alliance among the Pittsburgh and surrounding area FRC teams to help each other to better all of our teams through shared knowledge and resources. This summer, we had a lot of collaboration and fun with workshops and community days at our practice field. Every other Sunday, we hosted an open practice time where all of us worked and collaborated together while working on our own robots and projects. We also organized workshops like Intro to CAD, Intro to FRC Programming, Mechanical Tips and Trips, etc. We also created projects like building a West Coast Drive. We all gained so much and made so many new friends! We’re still continuing this throughout 2023 preseason, and we’re so excited to keep it going! Hope you can join us. Contact us at girlsofsteelrobotics@gmail.com.