Hello,
I am a sophomore that is a captain of a FRC team and I am looking into doing a large community service project for college involving robotics but I need some better ideas.
Please share anything you have.
Thanks,
Davis C
Why don’t you organize a local Robot demonstration and invite the community and schools without teams to participate – drive the robot around, maybe even perform a scrimmage with other local teams?
After competition, most teams just have their robot sitting around collecting dust. It would be a good opportunity for students on your team who aren’t the competition drivers to learn to drive it around for next year.
Team 3140 has hosted several Robotics Merit Badge workshops for the local scout troops. One of these had a turnout of ~45-50.
Hi Davis,
One thing you can do is reach out to your local public library and find out if they would be willing to work with you on setting up a demonstration geared towards engaging kids in science and technology. If your library usually does special readings or programs for kids, you will already have an excited audience to attend your demonstration, and depending on the space available you may even be able to let kids drive (my warning about letting non-team members driving a robot in a public space is to always have an attentive team member holding a kill switch ready to stop the robot if it looks like something may go wrong, it is always better to be safe than sorry when it comes to a child controling a 120 pound robot).
My team does a lot of community service work and We have done events like this in the past with great sucess . Seeing the looks on the kids faces as they see the robot for the first time is unforgettable 
I suggest bringing flyers about FIRST, FRC/FTC and FLL with you to hand out to any interested parents or teachers that you may meet.
Good Luck with whatever project you decide to do and if you ever need any help with understanding the logistics of organizing a community outreach event ( ex. parades, school demos, mall demos, library demo, visiting retirement homes, offseasons, fll events, scout demos, etc ) Feel free to private message me
~Hannah
We at Maggie L. Walker in Richmond are ready if you have any ideas that need help, be it a sounding board for service proposals or a strategist in executing a plan.