4/11/2017 FIRST Robotics Competition ­ Chairman's Award ­ Team 2557 Chairman's Award ­ Team 2557 Print Close 2017 ­ Team 2557 Team Number 2557 Team Name, Corporate/University Sponsors Boeing / Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction / Tacoma School District / F5 Networks, Inc / Delivery Express / Zumar Industries Incorporated / Blue Origin / Hewitt Cabinets & Interiors / Intellectual Ventures / Elements of Education Partners / Google / Science and Math Institute & Tacoma School of the Arts Briefly describe the impact of the FIRST program on team participants with special emphasis on the 2016/2017 year and the preceding two to five years The SOTAbots is so much more than building a robot. Team members gain technical skills and learn persistence and perseverance as they face each year's unique challenge. Students also learn to take responsibility and initiative by running FTC Watt League competitions, and presenting their knowledge and passion at our annual FRC workshops. From all of these opportunities and more, students graduate from the SOTAbots as proactive, independent, and empathetic leaders. Describe the impact of the FIRST program on your community with special emphasis on the 2016/2017 year and the preceding two to five years One of the ways that the SOTAbots bring FIRST into our community is by visiting scores of elementary and middle school classrooms and science fairs every year. We teach these younger students about the engineering process and the FIRST program, giving them innovative challenges to spur their excitement for FIRST Robotics. When teachers are eager to learn more about FIRST, we provide them with the resources and SOTAbots mentors to start their own FLL and FTC teams. Team's innovative or creative method to spread the FIRST message The culture of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) on the SOTAbots drives us to bring FIRST Robotics into our community. By combining the arts with the sciences, we engage youth with robots running through mazes at the Tacoma Children's Museum, robotics demonstrations at the LeMay Car Museum, and creative programming puzzles at summer camp. By fostering their critical thinking skills with hands­on activities, youth gain a passion for STEAM that they will continue to pursue. Describe examples of how your team members act as role models and inspire other FIRST team members to emulate The SOTAbots come from three public schools from around Tacoma, so our team is rich in diversity, collaboration, creativity, and teamwork. These qualities transcend our team as we engage other teams in Coopertition, bringing extra materials and supporting our alliances at competitions. We are role models because our actions show other teams that competing fairly and supporting other teams isn't a weakness, it's a strength. Describe the team's initiatives to help start or form other FRC teams The SOTAbots currently assisting 12 FRC teams though the Tacoma Robotics Alliance (TRA). In addition to a practice field that we build every season to help teams improve their robots and game strategy, the TRA is a resource for students to share ideas and resources across teams. Mentors across the TRA collaborate as well, helping all of our teams learn, grow, and have an enriching FIRST experience. Describe the team's initiatives to help start or form other FIRST teams (including Jr.FLL, FLL, & FTC) In the past two seasons, the SOTAbots have mentored two new FLL teams at Washington­Hoyt Elementary School, and our team members started three FLL teams at the Grant Center for the Expressive Arts. We also started four FTC teams in 2011 that are now ingrained in our schools' curriculums. Describe the team's initiatives on assisting other FIRST teams (including Jr.FLL, FLL, FTC, & FRC) with progressing through the FIRST program The SOTAbots have run the FTC Watt League Events completely since 2014. Our team members are the FTAs, the Queuers, and the Pit Admins, assisting the FTC teams in their first competitions to get their robots working and scoring. We also assist the four FTC teams at our schools, supporting them to ensure they are competition­ready. Describe how your team works with other FIRST teams to serve as mentors to younger or less experienced FIRST teams (includes Jr.FLL, FLL, FTC, & FRC teams) This season, the SOTAbots ran our 4th annual FRC workshop for teams across the Pacific Northwest. This year, 15 https://my.usfirst.org/frc/ca/site.lasso?r=0922987&fuseaction=ca.print_submission&sid=14167&pid=522117 1/3 4/11/2017 FIRST Robotics Competition ­ Chairman's Award ­ Team 2557 teams attended, going to sessions on pneumatics, game strategy, and BXD Synthesis, to name a few. Along with SOTAbots members and mentors, Team 360: The Revolution and Team 2907: Lion Robotics were presenters at the workshop as well. By partnering with these teams, the workshop further involved the FRC community, strengthening our ties to Pacific Northwest teams for the coming season. Describe your Corporate/University Sponsors The SOTAbots have cultivated over a dozen sponsors to support our team this year. Our sponsors are invaluable assets to our team, providing mentors, fiscal support, and raw materials. This season, we forged new connections with the Northwest Leadership Foundation, Umpqua Bank, and physics faculty at the University of Puget Sound. We promote our sponsors' logos on SOTAbots t­shirts, website, brochure, and robot, honoring their commitment to supporting the STEM leaders of tomorrow. Describe the strength of your partnership with your sponsors with special emphasis on the 2016/2017 year and the preceding two to five years The SOTAbots are always reaching out to find new sponsors that believe in the message of FIRST and want to support our team. We proactively connect with our sponsors through email and visits to their organization, and we invite them to our annual fundraiser and competitions. This year, we partnered with Umpqua Bank, which is proving our team with funds, a mentor, and a space for our annual fundraiser. With partnerships like these, the SOTAbots are continuing the sustainability of our team. Describe how your team would explain what FIRST is to someone who has never heard of it Briefly describe other matters of interest to the FIRST judges, if any Team Captain/Student Representative that has double­checked this submission. Addie Bjornson Essay Steam Powered STEM Leaders! FIRST Team 2557, the SOTAbots, was founded ten years ago at the School Of The Arts (SOTA), a non­traditional arts­ based public school in Tacoma, WA. Believing that SOTA students would thrive in the STEM­based FIRST program, our Director Jon Ketler founded the SOTAbots in 2007. That first team with a dozen members in iconic safety yellow jumpsuits has since grown into a thriving community of over forty diverse students and twelve mentors from several schools and the community. The SOTAbots functions like a steam­powered engine­­­just as coal heats water into steam that in turn powers an engine, the platform of FIRST Robotics is fuel for our team members to gain technical skills and become confident and empathetic STEM leaders. The STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math) approach of the SOTAbots energizes our team members to spread the FIRST program into schools, community centers, and government, inspiring STEAM leaders of tomorrow to achieve their full potential. Over the last ten years, the SOTAbots have expanded and adapted to be a wholly "STEAM powered" team. In 2011, our team grew to include members and mentors from SOTA's sister school, the Science And Math institute (SAMi). This season, the team's membership also includes students from the newly­created school of Industrial Design, Engineering, and Arts (iDEA). The SOTAbots are role models for this new class of iDEA freshman who do not have upperclassmen at their school to mentor them. We are infusing Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition into iDEA's foundational culture and embracing our new members' engineering and technology perspective. With these three schools combined, the SOTAbots have literally completed the acronym of STEAM; SAMi students bring in their passion for Science and Math, iDEA students bring the Engineering and Technology components, and our origins of arts from SOTA transform our team from STEM to STEAM. All of our members bring unique perspectives to the team, strengthening our diversity and collaboration. Every season, SOTAbots pass the torch of STEAM knowledge to fuel the next generation of aspiring team members through our Jedi/Padawan system. Based on the sci­fi movie series Star Wars, our seasoned Jedi masters are experts in Gracious Professionalism, and lead newcomers of the team, our Padawans, in gaining technical skills, confidence, maturity, and leadership. Throughout the season, SOTAbots members express that "FIRST is more than a platform to create a competitive robot ­­ FIRST is the path to a lifetime passion for STEAM." All these one­on­one connections create a tight­knit, student­led community of concentrated STEAM power as Padawans find their niche on the team and soon become Jedis themselves. This year, Padawan members went through tool training from their Jedis and dove into project­based learning as they designed and constructed a drivetrain and arm system in the pre­season. In 2010, the SOTAbots affirmed our investment in Coopertition by co­founding the Tacoma Robotics Alliance (TRA), an incredible resource for any FIRST team that wishes to join. The SOTAbots support the TRA by hosting a full­sized, up­ to­spec practice field for every FRC and FTC season, giving teams an opportunity to refine their robots and collaborate with other teams from the Pacific Northwest. In 2011, we grew the TRA by starting 4 FTC teams, and in 2015 we started 2 FLL teams, all of whom we continue to mentor.