Outreach
We have a mission to give back to our community and teach others about STEM.
Giving kids the opportunity to learn new skills, fundraising to help our local hospitals, working to bring FIRST to more places, that is what makes us Phantom.
India STEM Foundation
One of our teammates spoke with the India STEM Foundation about FIRST and FTC, along with what it means to be in robotics. Our work with them was incredible, we learned a lot from them and we taught them a lot about FIRST and robotics/STEM in general. It was an amazing experience.
Texas Children's Hospital
We met with Alana, who spoke to us about possible options for us to implement the curriculum we had been designing with young children at the hospital. We spoke about creating game boxes for them and teaching their volunteers about robotics so that the volunteers could then work with the kids.
FIRST Like A Girl
Our team attended the FIRST Like A Girl Expo and helped build LEGO FLL sets for the actual upcoming competitions. We spoke with engineers from Lyondellbasell about possible mentor ship, and we learned many interesting things from ambassadors in STEM, like Menzer Pehlivan.
Ev3 Training for Coaches and Mentors
We worked with Kabir Jolly to teach a class of coaches and mentors on basic skills needed to operate the Ev3. We taught them the basics of coding, worked on interactive projects with them, and answered any questions they had.
LEGO Summer Camps
Our team hosted multiple summer camps about Tetrix, WeDo 2.0, and Ev3. We taught the kids about problem solving, critical thinking, and real world connections so that they could understand what engineers do on a daily basis. The experience was exciting and we had a great time working with the kids.
San Jacinto Kick Off
We gave a presentation to teams about how we won Inspire, and gave tips to them for there notebook and presentation skills.
Baker Ripley And FabLab
We worked with FabLab and Baker Ripley Community Centers to teach kids about circuits and programming the WeDo 2.0. We had a great time with the kids, and taught them a lot about FIRST, FLL Jr., and even FTC. We hope to continue to solidfy our relationship with them, so that we can make a bigger impact in our community by teaching.
WeDo 2.0 Training
Our team hosted a WeDo training for coaches and mentors wanting to learn more about FIRST and FLL Jr. We reached around 20 people, and made a great connection with the Childrens Museum of Houston at the same time!
TV Feature on KHOU
We participated in a TV interview on KHOU’s TV Talk Show “Great Day Houston” which has aired since 2005. Diya discussed First Lego League (FLL) and FTC Programs to help spread the word about Robotics and FIRST. They covered core values, robot design, FIRST Programs, and competition. The feature reached over one million viewers!
Meeting Our US Representative
We met with Congressman Kevin Brady and spoke to him about FIRST and FTC. We showed Mr. Brady our robot and talked to him about what we do at competitions. Mr. Brady was very interested in FIRST and asked us many questions about our robot and how FIRST and FTC work. Along with being really approachable and entertaining, Mr. Brady was more knowledgeable about robotics than we had first anticipated. The experience was truly amazing and we look forward to working with our local representatives to gain more support for FIRST programs.
Phantom In The NEWS
"The Conroe Courier" and "Houston Chronicle: The Villager" are local newspapers reaching residents of Houston and the Montgomery County. These news sites are very popular in their communities as they have over 50,000 collective subscribers. They also have 5,000 followers on Facebook and posted our interview on their Facebook page. In the interview, we explained our engineering process and how, as a team, we were able to develop innovative and robust designs.
FIRST Global Sponsor Event
Team Phantom were FIRST ambassadors at a FIRST Global sponsor event where we shared our experiences of being a mostly middle school FTC team with Dean Kamen and corporate sponsors. Talking with Dean Kamen, learning all about FIRST Global and helping them raise major funding was amazing!
Coach/Team FLL EV3 Programming Session
Team Phantom volunteered at several LEGO EV3 programming workshops for local coaches and teams, reaching over 80 rookie FLL teams and coaches. We helped the students and coaches with their programs, teaching them to command their robots to drive forward, backwards and turn. We also taught them how to work with sensors. All of us on Team Phantom enjoyed sharing what we knew with the next generation of engineers. In total, we reached 80 coaches and 440 kids! (For more info on trainings, contact us here.)
