Season of 2022-2023
Taiwan Outreach Activity
In September and October, we connected with a group of elementary to middle schoolers in Taiwan and introduced them to robotics and FIRST.
Screw It 11047 (Taiwan) Outreach Activity
On August 13th, 2022, we were able to meet internationally with a FTC Team from Taiwan. Our leaders from AOE were able to meet them in-person when they attended the World’s competition in Texas. The team is called Screw It!
Roboforce 13356 Outreach Activity
September 24th, 2022, we met with RoboForce again!
On August 6th, 2022, we were able to have a zoom call with Team 13356, Roboforce Robotics.
NOVA Charity Tennis Outreach Activity
From June to August 2022, Hannah, Sophie, and Luke spent each Saturday morning teaching tennis to children in their community. Furthermore, we also informed the children regarding FIRST and their robotics programs. We were able to raise over 300+ dollars over the course of these few months.
Virginia Korean Outreach Activity
In late July and early August, our members went to Virginia to spark interest in FTC. We presented our robot and gave some information regarding our building process, driver controls, and also let them explore the features of our robot. We had a lot of fun and I hope the students learned something about robotics!
7172 Technical Difficulties Zoom Session
In late July, we were grateful to be able to meet with Technical Difficulties, the winner of MTI. It was a super memorable experience and we learned a lot about how their robot functions, team dynamic, and designing process.
6165 Cuttlefish via Zoom Q&A Session
During 2 Saturdays in July, we were able to meet with 6165 Cuttlefish again! But this time, it was via Zoom. We were able to have a 2 hour Q&A session with Cuttlefish. We asked them about their design process, building ideas, and summer goals! We are super grateful for this opportunity. In the future, we hope to be able to discuss more design ideas!
Summer 2022 Egg Roll Fundraiser
In the beginning of July, we had our 3rd Egg Roll Fundraiser! This time, we not only sold Egg Rolls, but also Egg Tarts! We were able to sell 20+ boxes and raised over 80+ dollars to help fundraise for our team. We hope that people enjoyed eating the delicious sweets!
NASA OSAM-1 Project In-Person Seminar
This July, Dr. Ying, the father of Ruixi from Tigers Robotics, who works in NASA gave our team a presentation regarding NASA’s On-orbit Service, Assembly, and Manufacture (OSAM-1) project. We are grateful for this great opportunity for our members to have an overview about robot project in NASA!
6165 Cuttlefish Meet Up!
This June, Fairy Tail was able to meet a team that traveled all the way to Maryland for the MTI! The team was 6165 Cuttlefish, from California, which had an amazing robot and qualified for Worlds as well as the MTI this year. We were able to learn a lot about their design process and hope to use the skills we learned for the next season!
AOE Summer STEM Camp Volunteering/Mentoring
This June-August, 3 members of our team: Hannah, Asher, and Adrian mentored a group of students for a 8 week STEM Robotics Summer Camp. We taught the students about FIRST’s 6 main core values, how to build a bare bone robot, basic robot coding, driving skills and fun activities!
NASA Zoom Seminar at AOE Center
At around May of 2022, we held a seminar where a specialized machine optics NASA worker explained what she does at NASA! It was an amazing experience and each of our members gained a lot of new knowledge!
Montgomery College Science Fair Event
After the competition season ended, our team did not wrap up right away. We showcased our robot at the Rockville Science Fair at Montgomery College on April 24th, along with 3 other clubs from our club. We set up the game field and participated in scrimmages with multiple teams that came as well.
Season of 2021-2022
First Egg Roll Sale of the Season
In order to raise funds for our team, we held a bake sale and sold egg rolls to the community, raising over 200 dollars!
Vertias Collegiate Academy Outreach Activity
Over the preseason period, our team has worked with the Veritas Collegiate Academy, specifically their campus stationed in Vienna, Virginia, for the purpose of setting up their own robotics team.
Moreover, team members have been assisting other FTC teams also under the Academy of Excellence‘s management (i.e 18792 “Penguin Robotics,” 19670 “Turtle Robotics”), as a form of mentoring. This helped especially new teams that had no prior experience in FIRST robotics.
Java Workshop Class at AOE
This also includes running a two-day Java autonomous and teleoperation programming workshop, with students being given the opportunity to test and write their own code.
Season of 2020-2021
With the onslaught of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools closed nationwide.
Our team pursued this opportunity to accommodate STEM eager children, and do a favor for the community by teaching STEM and FIRST related courses which covered mechanical and software engineering, and also public speaking. (after all, what good are engineering skills, if you cannot communicate your ideas?)
Over the summer, Fairy Tail recruited students that wanted to participate in FTC. This recruitment operation was so successful that the influx of students had to be redirected into the formation of two new teams, Team 18972 “Penguin Robotics” and Team 18905 “The Legends” whose legacy is now carried by Team 19670 “Turtle Robotics” after the former team disbanded in the 2021-2022 season.
In addition to teaching classes, Fairy Tail devoted a large portion of time to building relationships in the community to spark interest and education in the STEM field. In the past, we engaged with the community through participating in STEM nights, as well as meeting and greeting younger students at local schools.
With the COVID-19 pandemic, Fairy Tail hosted the aforementioned workshops online, in accordance to strict lockdown guidelines.
Season of 2019-2020
In October of 2019, our team visited local high school Churchill High School to introduce STEM to students, with a robotics demonstration.
Over the summer of 2019, our team coached an FLL Junior team in Rockville and Quince Orchard Public Libraries. Team members taught them building techniques and helped boost their confidence during presentations.
In February of 2020, our team joined Team 9794 “Wizards.exe” and Team 17080 “NewT.exe” on a trip to Heraeus. We learned about the factory manufacturing equipment as we toured the facility.
The Montgomery County (likely the Special Operations Fire and Rescue Service?) bomb squad came by our center of operations to demonstrate their robot as well as give us a tour of their truck.
Fairy Tail presented at Thurgood Marshall Elementary School STEM Night, with a robot demonstration.
