Date:Posted By:Comments:9 CommentsCategory:Uncategorized

I am aiming to offer an after school robotics club for girls at my school this year. While the program itself is being offered by the school, the robotics supplies are not. As such, I am hoping to raise about $1000 to put toward 2 base kits and a Green City Challenge Set.

The base kits provide the required pieces for building the robots and the challenge sets provide scenarios and programming challenges that extend the students’ understanding of programming and robot construction.

The reason I am focusing on girls is because most girls assume that science and technology are ‘boy’ subjects and as such, they are underrepresented in both fields. In addition, programming robots teaches logical thinking as well as mathematical concepts that are beneficial for critical thinking, problem solving and academic success.

In addition, I am hoping that the club will be successful enough to begin looking at bringing my students to the First Lego League competitions.

Please help in any way you can. The club starts in October and I’m hoping to raise the money before the end date so I can know if the club is a viable offering and to have enough time to purchase the kits.

You can contribute using the widget to the right of this post!

Feel free to forward this post along to any generous people you know and tweet it out!

Thanks!

9 Comments

  1. Pingback: Help out @mbteach start a robotics club for girls « TJ Houston.com

  2. A Gardner

    Reply

    Have you tried pairing up with a FIRST team in the area? I think there’s 3-4 in the Philadelphia area. Their mentors & students can help out, both with the robot and with fundraising. When we first started, we had mentors from the local university and a few parents with their own businesses willing to subsidize our efforts. Have you hit up the NASA facilities in New York and Maryland? Typically, they are huge supporters of anything related to robotics and FIRST. It’s overwhelming, frustrating, and worth it, though, it doesn’t always feel that way during.

    • mbteach

      Reply

      Thanks for the ideas. I am in the process of seeking out Philly-based teams. For future funding I plan on seeking out corporate sponsorship or some kind of partnership. Unfortunately, I’m on a tight schedule. I hope to do more fundraising w/in the school community as the school year starts up.

      Thanks again!

  3. Riku

    Reply

    Hi! Have you thought of putting this project up on kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com)? That could be a good! Or some other crowdfunding site?

    • mbteach

      Reply

      I have thought about that. I might do two different methods. The nice thing about ChipIn is that the money goes right to you whether you meet your goal or not. I’ll check Kickstart out again.

  4. Kat Goodale

    Reply

    I teach at a girl’s school in Toronto, and have been using the lego robotics for 6 years with incredible success! Email me if you like, I’ve got some great resources I’m happy to share.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.