5501 Outreach & Engineering

Mission

The driving mission of team 5501 is to spread awareness of robotics and the real life application of FIRST. Our hope is that we will inspire others to seek careers in engineering and create their own FIRST teams while we offer them our support. It is also important to us to build a positive relationship with local engineering businesses.

Community Outreach:

Presented at the High Schools That Work Best Practice Showcase (April '19)
Presented at the Van Wert Rotary Club (April '19)
Presented at the Van Wert Service Club (February '19)
Presented robotics to the local nursing home (November '18)
Held a demo at Makerfest in Lima, OH where we presented FTC to over 1500 students and vendors (October '18)
Presented robotics at Space Camp to 30 students at the Wapakoneta Air and Space Museum (June '18)
Presented at the Van Wert County Fairgrounds in the music tent (Sept. '17)
Presented to the local Noon Optimist Club to provide information about our program (Sept. '17)
Presented and built robots at Space Camp to 30 5th-8th grade students at the Wapakoneta Air and Space Museum (Aug, '17)
Assisted with our local STEM Camp (June '17)
Presented robotics at Space Camp to 30 2nd-4th grade students at the Wapakoneta Air and Space Museum (Jun. '17)
Presented to the Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos, and the AFT Union President Randi Weingarten (April '17)
Plans to implement an FLL team in the Middle School for the 2017/2018 FLL Season
Presented to the local service club to provide information about our program (Nov. '16)
New Bremen visited us and we gave them information to start their engineering program and robotics team
Lincolnview visited us and we gave them information to start their engineering program. They also have plans to build a community center with room for a robotics team based upon our information regarding FTC
Delphos St. Johns visited us to gain information into robotics and engineering. They have since started 3 successful FLL teams.
Presented and built robots at Space Camp to 30 5th-8th grade students at the Wapakoneta Air and Space Museum (Aug, '16)
Presented robotics at Space Camp to 30 2nd-4th grade students at the Wapakoneta Air and Space Museum (Jun. '16)
Writing a grant which includes a video submission to secure a Robotics Wheelchair costume through the "Magic Wheelchair" foundation for a high school student that is wheelchair bound (Dec. '15)
Presented at the Board of Education and Local Service Club (Dec. '15)
Sponsoring a student from Haiti who wants to become an Engineer (Nov. '15- Present)
Mentoring and providing our practice field for another local rookie FTC team in Grover Hill (2015/2016 Season- Present)
Provided Resources and currently providing mentorship to a new FTC team in Wapakoneta, OH (2015/2016 Season- Present)
Started and Mentoring an FLL team at our Elementary School (Aug. '15- Present)
Presented and built robots at Space Camp to 30 5th-8th grade students at the Wapakoneta Air and Space Museum (Aug, '15)
Setup a booth to promote FIRST and STEM at an art festival and launched a duck into the town creek to start the duck races (July. '15)
Met with Auglaize and Mercer County Schools to discuss robotics and engineering (Jul. '15)
Presented robotics at Space Camp to 30 2nd-4th grade students at the Wapakoneta Air and Space Museum (Jun. '15)
Presented at the Rotary Club about our team and season (May '15)
Wapakoneta City Schools visited our team to discuss starting a team and we have offered them our support in starting a team (Jan. '15)
Local schools were invited to our tournament to see the robots in action, ask us questions, and we have provided them our support to start their own team (Jan. '15)
Donated food for a local food drive (Jan. '15)
Presented to the Board of Education (Dec. '14)
Visited Elementary and Middle School Classrooms with the Robot to spread STEM and FIRST (Oct. '14)
Gained financial support and partnerships with multiple businesses and universities through presentations and presenting our 5 year plan (Jun.-Oct. '14)
Presented to the Rotary Club and Optimist Club (July-Aug. '14)
Presented to children at the library and had them drive our robot (Jun' 14)
Was awarded a proclamation by the Mayor of Van Wert and had a day named Robotics Day (May '14)
Presented to the Board of Education (May '14)
Presented to the Van Wert Service Club about FTC and demoed the robot (March '14)
Held a T-Shirt Fundraiser to raise awareness of FTC and gain funds for Iowa (March '14)
Presented club and robot to all high school staff, superintendent, and local newspaper (Jan. '14)
Presented to local retired teachers group (Mar. 13)
Setup booth and demoed robot at varsity basketball game (Feb. 13)
Made contact with Honda connections and schools located near Honda factories to try to get them funding and provide our support (Oct. '12)
Mentored Van Wert Middle School FLL Team (Oct.- Dec. '12)
We were chosen to present at The Ohio Tech Prep Conference (May '11)
Invited schools from our conference (WBL) in to provide information to them about FIRST and provide our support if they start a FTC team (May '11)
Invited engineers from the community into our school to view our program and demoed robot (May '11)
We were chosen to present at The High Schools that Work, Best Practices Showcase (Apr '11)
Presented to our Board of Education (Mar. '11)

Engineering:

Partnering with multiple Engineering Companies and Universities to provide sustainability to our program
Visited the robot demo day at the hospital in Lima, OH where we demoed the DaVinci robot and other medical/industry robots (Nov. '18)
Took a tour of a local Engineering Company, FlexArm, Inc., and learned what they do as well as what jobs they are looking to fill (Sept. '18)
One of our Seniors is completing an apprenticeship at a local engineering company that partners with our team
Alliance Automation, Kennedy Manufacturing and Elmco Engineering are manufacturing custom parts that we send them
Toured Alliance Automation and presented our club to them, they are going to partner with us financially and by providing learning opportunities to our students
Visited Elmco Engineering to help them work on some items for our team
Elmco Engineering has came over and gave us feedback and suggestions for our robot
A&P Tool brought in their Fenuc Robot to demo during our tournament
Engineers from the local community were our judges for the local tournament
Create parts for companies on our 3D printer in exchange for support for our club
Our PLTW program, robotics club feeder, provides interns to local engineering businesses
Presented robot to local engineers
Work with local engineering businesses when we need custom parts made out of metal
Local engineering company gives a $1,000 scholarship to a graduating senior going into engineering from our program