In July, MOE 365 partnered with Ulster Project Delaware for a “Competition in a Day” we called the MOE Vex Challenge. Ulster Project Delaware brings groups of Catholic and Protestant students from Northern Ireland to Delaware for the month of July to have them interact and learn tolerance.
We created nine Vex teams consisting of Northern Ireland Catholic and Protestant students, their host students in the US, and a MOE student serving as a Vex mentor.
The event was very special. At first, students were wondering why this event was even on their schedule. None had built robots before and their usual days consisted of tours, travel, or charity work. By the middle of qualification rounds, the teens were hooked.
The game we played included qualification and elimination rounds and was patterned after the FIRST rookie mentor kickoff activity.
The team developed a website to share learnings about the day, provide tools for other teams who might want to hold a Competition in a Day, and to link to video and photos of the event. We also included links to all the Ulster Projects in the United States, in case a team would like to partner with local programs.
Please take a look. We hope it is helpful directly or indirectly with your team’s community service or teambuilding activities.
Another benefit from an event like this with students from Ireland is that the students’ situation, combined with the robot competition make the event a nice sell for local media coverage.
Attached is a link to a local newspaper story on the event.
I have to add this was a fantastic day. When these students came in, they were very unenthused, to put it mildly. By the end of the day they were cheering, excited, and we couldn’t pull them away. (Alright, most of them were - there were a couple who were bored. No accounting for taste.) You can see this on the tape.
It also was a great way for the MOE students, along with a couple of returning alumni, to teach others and for the first time realize how much they have really learned from their years in FIRST.
Haha, you are right about that.
I guess I was thinking about how much fun your Irish friends were having together, celebrating the wonder of robots and team work.
I for one had a great time. I was both a MOE student and Ulster Project participant, so I got the best of both worlds. My friends all really liked it I think. Might not want to join a team, but they certainly had fun. We’re now talking to a DuPont employee at a plant in Derry about starting a VEX team there, and it just might take off. Only time will tell…
As Erro (Will) mentioned, he and his family actually served as hosts for two teens from Northern Ireland for the month of July. If anyone out there is interested in serving as a teen host and their family a host family, please check out the U.S. Ulster Projects page as described earlier in this thread or contact Will. It is a great and unique experience.
