COMMUNITY OUTREACH

Members of the Swartdogs had the opportunity to tour John Deere’s facilities with employees. Students also shared their knowledge and memories of robotics with the employees there.

Conferences interfered with one of our local FLL Explore Team’s competition so we hosted them at our buildsite. We listened to their presentation, demoed our robot, showed our buildsite, and celebrated with them.

Teammates from our team ran concessions, a robot demo, and field reset. We also partnered with FLL Explore teams while they had their competition and showed them what FTC and FRC had to offer.

Our team joined other CFHS clubs and students to hand out candy to our community for Halloween. Our trunk theme was Swart-zombies and we ended up being voted in the top 3 for best trunk.

At our annual Fall can drive we worked hard to raise money for our competition season. We encouraged our community to recycle their cans and bottles for us to sort.

Swartdogs displayed past robots to students at our local junior high schools for their back to school night. We also answered questions asked and spread the word about FIRST programs in our community.

Our team visited Girls Scouts Camp Liberty where our Head Coach and team member are camp counselors. At the camp we presented information to help the campers gain their Junior Robotics Badge. The campers also actively interacted with our robot by driving and analyzing the mechanics and also talking with team members through a meal.

We attended our annual city celebration where we got to interact with community members along with our local FTC teams. Directly talking to visitors and showing them first hand STEM. Kids who were interested in driving our robot were also able to interact with the robot.

Our team chatted with 4th-6th graders at Lincoln Elementary. This gave us a chance to talk to many kids curious about STEM and the varying aspects of robotics. Answering every question concerning our robot and game for the year. Lastly, the students were able to operate the robot and see the robot up close.

Demoing our robot at our school’s ELP Fair allowed us to interact with young minds who may be interested in joining FRC in the future.

We hosted an open house where we got the opportunity to interact with families, potential sponsors, and community members with the goal of making them aware of what we have accomplished as a team.

We invited our local FTC teams to get a tour of our buildsite, drive our robot, and play a fun bingo scavenger hunt game!

By volunteering at our local food bank we were able to package 871 pounds of cereal which will be given out to families in our community in need. 

We ran 2 FLL Explore Expos as a way to connect with our FLL students. We also demonstrated our robot for these students and taught them how to drive it.

We had a blast demonstrating our robot for 9th graders at our high schools orientation! 

NEED TO WRITE STILL

By attending John Deere’s Engineering Week we were able to interact with one of our biggest sponsors and other FIRST teams.

Holding a local kickoff paired with our sessions around topics such as programming, awards, and game strategy was a great way to excite students and mentors alike for the new season!

When FRC Team 8737 arrived in Cedar Falls a day early for the new season kickoff, they got in touch with us and asked to have a tour of our buildsite.

Having a presence at our local FTC League Meet helps students know what their next step might be in FIRST. It also serves as a fundraising opportunity for us through our concession stand. 

We ran an FLL Explore Expo for our FLL students so they were able to showcase their hard work to their parents.

Running the annual Regional FLL Qualifier for our FLL students allows us to create a space where students can showcase their hard work as well as allowing us to interact with future FRC students.

We were able to be apart of a leadership assembly at a local elementary school to talk about our district’s leadership program, The 7 Habits of Happy Kids.

We invited a group of cub scouts to visit our buildsite and helped them to earn their Engineering Merit Badge.

Twice a year, we host a can drive to help fund our team and encourage our community to recycle their cans and bottles.

Every year, we attend both of our district’s junior high back to school nights to reach students and recruit new members. 

Every summer at our town’s celebration, we organize a FIRST demonstration so that community members of all ages can see our robot in action and learn how they can get involved. 

Twice a year, we host a can drive to help fund our team and encourage our community to recycle their cans and bottles.

Our Cedar Falls FTC teams came to visit to see what FRC is about.

We held one of several FLL Explore Expos where students served as ambassadors for teams!

We ran 2 FLL Regional Qualifiers, a morning and afternoon session. This was our 13th year of the event.

We had multiple FLL Explore teams visit our build site to learn more about robots and our team.

We collected cans from our community to fund our competition season.

We helped our school district’s FLL Coordinators by sorting LEGO to prepare for the upcoming FLL seasons.

We showcased our robot at our local Boy Scouts camp to help them earn their Robotics Merit Badge.

At a community celebration we have an entire area dedicated to FIRST with FTC and FRC demonstrations while we talk to our community about opportunities in the program. 

We demonstrated our robot and talked about opportunities in FRC to the incoming 9th graders at our school. 

We held a can drive for people around the community to drop off cans. We also offered to pick up people’s cans from their house. 

We used our build site for local FLL teams to record match videos for their virtual competitions.

To entertain the residents of our local Western Homes, we built snow sculptures in their courtyard for Covid safe outreach. 

We handed out candy to the children of the Cedar Falls community for our schools Trunk or Treat event. 

Along with other FRC, FTC, and FLL teams, we demonstrated our robot during John Deere’s Engineering Week, showing John Deere employees what FIRST is about.

We hosted a Lasagna Dinner for our community where we served dinner and showcased 4 of our past robots. We talked with attendees about FIRST and FRC and our past achievements. 

Cedar Falls Tourism invited us to showcase our team along with information about FRC and the Iowa Regional in one of their display cases.