Making it Loud Through Service

The FIRST Tech Challengecommunity is composed of thousands of amazing teams and people. These folks are changing their own lives, their communities, and the culture of our world by celebrating STEM and spreading Gracious Professionalism. In addition to building and competing with a robot, each season teams log hundreds of hours of community service hours, demonstrating that FIRST is definitely More Than Robots. We’ve collected just a few stories of FIRST Tech Challenge teams making it loud by giving back to their communities.


Since 2012, FTC Team #6055 the Gearticks have been an exhibitor at Boston’s First Night activities attended by almost a million people each year. Several FIRST teams get together to exhibit their robots and allow those new to FIRST to have a hands on experience driving robots. The Gearticks love “being able to connect with hundreds of kids and their parents and share their passion for robots. We also get the chance to hang out with other FIRST teams, discuss the competition challenges, and share ideas.” So many children have been exposed to robotics and STEM through this outreach effort. “Celebrating FIRSTrobotics on First Night is a great way to ring in the New Year!”

Team #7190 The Greens Girls spend time at the PACER Center for Girls with Disabilities. On one trip they taught the girls how to build and program a FIRST LEGO League (FLL) robot. They returned in a collaborative effort with IBM to do an all-day camp that included a mixture of activities, including building a robot, and an obstacle course. The team found it “extremely rewarding to teach the girls with disabilities something new and to see the smiles on their faces.” By the end of the day they were all gathered together in one group, despite their differences.

The Butler Bot, created by Team #4924 the Tuxedo Pandas, led the official procession at the first ever Virginia Science Festival at Virginia Tech, followed closely by leaders at Virginia Tech, NASA, and the Mayor of Blacksburg. After the ceremonies, the real fun began as the team spent time over the month-long celebration teaching young children how to build and program an NXT robot, earning a medal for completing a short course. “In two weeks, we gave away more than 200 medals. That’s 200 more kids with a touch of STEM in their head.”

Spreading STEM awareness is not the only way FTC Teams impact their community. Team #7043 the Turbo Turtles adopted a family for Christmas, raising money, purchasing, wrapping, and giving a family with three children aged 8, 10, and 13 a bright holiday, including winter coats. In the process, the team learned about budgeting and the joy of giving: “our team learned the value of giving back to those in need and how it ends up a win-win for those that give as well as those that receive.”

It is not just outreach into our community that FTC teams make these connections. Like many FTC teams, FTC Team #8470 Team Technadois mentored by another FTC team, the the Gearticks. Working together, both teams “learned a lot by helping the team troubleshoot through Google Hangouts, email, and in person. Each team member is able to offer a different area of expertise and teaching deepened our understanding.” Of the experience, the Pandas note, “we hope that by showing the Technados what we know about FIRST and robotics, they will continue to spread the knowledge to classmates and other schools around them.”

In celebration of STEM, in building community, in helping others, in building robots – no matter what the task, the connections we build are the moments that matter most and last longest. How have you given back to your community?