Community Outreach

When we decided to start a FIRST team at Dulaney High School in the fall of 2005 we quickly realized that introducing our team to everyone possible would be the cornerstone of building a large successful club.  We pursued outreach from the very beginning knowing that success in robotics comes from not just hard work but from the collaboration of many contributors.  Team REX is very proud of the community outreach we have conducted in the past three years.  From elementary visits to middle school camps we have introduced competitive robotics to numerous aspiring engineers.  We have steadily increased our community involvement through visits to local businesses such as bookstores, restaurants and large chain stores.  We have formed partnerships with industry, institutes of higher education and government agencies.  We also quickly realized that for robotics to grow in our area we needed to support the Baltimore Area Alliance as much as we could.

Business Participation

One of our most effective outreach efforts is our visits to local businesses.  From Wal-Mart to Sam’s Club, from Barnes and Noble to small restaurants we have displayed our robot to raise funds and awareness.  We have found a double benefit in raising funds through robot display.  We raise community awareness about our efforts and seek donations.

Baltimore Area Alliance (BAA)

REX is proud to one of the original founding members of the BAA and we are very proud of our contributions to that effort.  Our team is proud to host the website and to be very involved in every aspect of the BAA.  After qualifying to attend the championship last year by winnig the Chesapeake Regional Chairman’s Award we did our own fund raising to pay for ten student and adult members of other BAA teams to attend the championship competition with us to obtain the experience of the truly memorable championship event.

BAA Dinner

REX is proud of it’s involvement in the BAA.  On January 8, 2008 we hosted the second annual BAA fund raising dinner sponsored by Outback Steakhouse of Timonium at Dulaney in which 10 teams from our area participated.  More than 8,000 dollars was raised for these tem teams.  During the dinner teams displayed robots, hosted a silent auction and introduced robotics to those that bought tickets for the dinner. Almost 400 people attended.  The strength of the outreach of that dinner came from the participation of so many different teams from the area surrounding Baltimore. Four counties and the city of Baltimore were represented.

BAA Training Session

On November 17, we participated in the BAA education symposium by providing teachers to train in the subjects of action planning, robot transportation, document preparation and electronics.   With the rest of the presenters from other teams, a great amount of training was conducted and a very successful training seminar was held.

Battle O’ Baltimore

The BAA organized a truly memorable local event called the Battle O’ Baltimore held in August, 2007.  Twenty teams attended the Battle and walked away with a truly memorable experience.  Our team was glad to host the website for the event and handle the registration of teams.  We were very involved in the planning, setup and staffing of the event.  It was the first time a group of teams came together to conduct a local event in the Baltimore Area.  It was very heartwarming to watch a collaboration of different teams cooperate with the Community College of Baltimore County to host this event.

In 2008 the Park School (Team 1719) hosted the Battle O' Baltimore event. Twenty five teams battled this time around using the 2008 FRC Overdrive robots. We helped out with planning, setup, operation and teardown of the event, including using a modified version of our scouting system to track scores and output the results on a number of displays.

Elementary and Middle School Involvement

Summer Camps for middle school students.  We have conducted a summer camp for middle school students for the last two years in which middle school aged children from across the region can attend and learn basic robot techniques.  We are proud to have introduced over 100 middle school kids to FIRST and robotics.

We have conducted several day camps in LEGO robotics for elementary aged children in which they come to our school and “play” with LEGO robotics.  We have introduced over 60 kids to LEGO and they leave with a new passion for robotics.

We have also conducted many visits to elementary schools where we awe the children with our robot.  We always ask at first how many kids want to be engineers and a few raise their hands.  After watching the robot in action we ask the same question and far more hands shoot up.