Diving into Innovation with Young Engineers at BFC
by Evelyn Wampuszyc
The FIRST community has operated for the last 35 years, bringing young engineers and creatives of ages ranging from 4-18 opportunities to learn more about STEAM and expand their knowledge on careers in programming, build, prototyping, CAD, business, multimedia, and more. The Foley Freeze participates in the high school level, — FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) — but FIRST’s outreach begins with the FIRST Lego League (FLL). FLL provides an environment where teamwork, creativity, and the understanding and application of STEAM basics through hands-on experiences.
The Foley Freeze supports the younger levels of FIRST in various ways, including hosting an annual competition, bringing local teams together for a chance to showcase their skills learned throughout the year.
For this season’s game, SUBMERGEDSM, teams had 12 weeks to design and build a robot able to work through pre-coded actions and complete tasks, including lifting and placing coral, assisting LEGO aquatic animals with their habitat, and many other challenges themed around underwater sustainability. Although there are no alliances in FLL, teams are encouraged to work together through certain tasks in order to both get more points. The team’s best scoring match will be the one counted towards their overall competition score.
As teams bring their robots ready for competition, Foley Freeze members assist in all aspects of the competition, from field set-up to refereeing, to queueing and Emceeing. Mentors and students alike also judge presentations from teams. These presentations include their process through picking a problem, creating a solution, and how they decided to share their solution. Judges will then score the creativity and persistence of the team and add to their competition score. With match and presentation scores composing a team’s overall competition score, FIRST brings STEAM basics and real world applications to the youth.
Throughout the year, FIRST Core Values — discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork, fun — are showcased through a team’s ability to work side-by-side with other teams, find solutions to the environmental problem focused on during that specific year, and display of gracious professionalism towards other teams, volunteers, and staff. Taught through the fun world of LEGOs, these values prepare the younger generation for other FIRST groups such as FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) and FRC, along with choosing future careers.
The Foley Freeze is grateful for the opportunity to bring teams together again in the year 2024 and experience the exploration of STEAM together! The team is looking forward to seeing young engineers of the future compete in the new season!
