Outreach
Team 188 hopes to bring STEM education at the fingertips of every child. In order to get there, Team 188 inspires young people to be future STEM leaders and innovators at 3 different levels: In the “Community”, “Around the World”, and “Near Us”.
Community
We collaborated with Catholic Crosscultural services, to continually work with local newcomer students aged 8-15 to discuss the importance of STEM in resolving day-to-day problems.
Our Vision
Team 188 advocates for STEM innovation and education at each level of society. Our vision of carrying out FIRST Robotics' goal can be summarized by the “CAN” approach, signifying that we can achieve our mission. CAN is an acronym that stands for “Community”, “Around the World”, and “Near Us”. To spread awareness of STEM, Team 188 actively reaches out to youth in the community, around the world, and those already members of the FIRST family.
Community
Team 188 strives to present STEM workshops to local youth in an engaging manner. By downsizing complex concepts into a hands-on activity, they can see firsthand that the future of STEM innovation is right at the tip of their fingers. For example, creating a paper straw rocket to explain the drag and thrust forces present in real rocket launches. In doing so, students from five different elementary schools within the Woburn community have been exposed to STEM concepts while gaining essential critical thinking and teamwork skills.
Around the World
Cars of Continuity was a global initiative led by Team 188 Chairmans in 2018. In collaboration with the Leacock Foundation, we sent DIY solar car kits to students at Get Ahead Project, a school in South Africa. Each kit came with all the parts to build a solar car including a small solar panel, motor, wires, and plastic frame parts. We conducted video conferences for six weeks to discuss the impact of solar panels and similar topics. In the following years, we continue to ignite their passion for STEM by connecting with them online. We guided them step-by-step on how to use materials they had to build spectrometers to explore light in space, and taught them the importance of engineering solutions to global accessibility problems, such as playgrounds.
Near Us
Team 188 is the largest club and the longest-standing club at Woburn CI. We are present at all large-scale school events such as Grade 9 Orientation and Grade 8 night, showcasing our Robotics team along with the FIRST program. Through the recruitment of new students, Team 188 has a proud 21-year history of creating innovators. To further encourage students of Woburn to get involved with First Robotics, we painted a mural to display the efforts and boundless creative minds of the members of Team 188.