We feel that FIRST has made a major impact on us and the world. FIRST gave us an opportunity to explore the STEM field and question, “How does this work?” We want others to have this same opportunity to explore the STEM field. We educate others about STEM and FIRST but we also explore ourselves. Since we are a rookie team, there is so much for us to learn from FTC. The whole team is exploring how to code java, how to use CAD, how to build a robot, and so much more. As a team, we want to learn more about STEM ourselves and at the same time, inform others about the opportunity FIRST has given us to learn more about robotics.

We plan to accomplish numerous things over this FTC season. Considering we are a rookie team, we know almost nothing about FTC. We plan to learn everything about FTC like the basic parts, how to build a robot, how to code java, how to use CAD, etc. over the break period in-between seasons. We are planning to attend workshops held by other FTC teams and receive mentorship from them. But we also want to help others. Since most of our team members already have a background in STEM, we plan to enlighten kids of a younger age about the STEM world. We understand many youngsters have an interest in robotics and STEM in general, but aren’t exposed to it which holds them back. We target to outreach to as many places as possible such as schools, libraries, and more so we can reach these kids and teach them about robotics and FIRST. This will really help get the message out that everyone has a chance to do something STEM related if they have interest, whether it be taking an online course or joining a robotics team, there is always an opportunity.

We did many activities and projects, but the most successful and fun project was when we created a bridge in CAD. CAD stands for Computer-Aided Design, and it is an online building tool used to build things online and see how it looks before you actually build it. After one of our team members gave us the required measurements, we tried to use CAD for the first time using onshape. At first, it was pretty hard and a struggle, but after time, we were able to get the hang of it. As weeks went by, we kept iterating and each of us were able to fully create a bridge in CAD. This was amazing since just two weeks back we didn’t even know what CAD was. After we created these digital representations, we were able to create the real bridge in real life using the CAD measurements in one of our team members' backyard. Learning CAD like this was useful to us because we were able to see our CAD designs come to life. CAD is useful to us in FTC because we need it to build our robot. After we make a digital representation in CAD of our robot, we can either 3d print it out or buy the pieces. This way we are more efficient and we know what we are building before we actually build it. It is very useful to us in the long term, and we are glad that we were able to learn it in an interesting way.

Since our experience varies from little to a lot, we make sure that all of our team members are involved in every activity that we do. Since some of us already have years of experience in FLL, it makes it a little easier to understand FTC. However, some of us have never even heard of it before Cybotz, so we make sure everyone understands what we are doing and why. This experience varies between each team member, so we hope to make sure that everyone becomes well rounded in the topics, as they may find themselves enjoying one topic, but finding another less challenging.

Outreaching is a huge part of the FIRST experience. Not only does it allow us to hone speaking and interview skills, but it spreads the word about STEM to others that are underprivileged. We outreach to help others learn about STEM and get interested in the area of robotics.

Since we are a rookie team, we want everyone to have a basic understanding of all the basics such as Java, CAD, building the robot, etc. But before the season starts, we will pick people to become experts in a certain topic. So if anyone needs help in a certain area, they will go to these few people for help. The work in that area will be evenly divided by the experts in that area. So the more complex the area is, the more members it will have. So the java area will have more members than the outreach area. But if experts in the area aren’t available, everyone else will still know how to do the work because of the basic knowledge they have. But to stay on top of everything, at the beginning of each class, we discuss what needs to be done by a certain deadline, which is usually within a few weeks, then we discuss anything that needs to be shared in our class like outreach events or workshops we need to attend to get a better understanding of FTC. Discussing everything at the beginning and ending of class helps us know what needs to be done immediately while what needs to be done over a span of a few weeks. We also created a document saying what we did during class and what needs to be done so no one will forget what needs to be done. This is also helpful to people who weren't able to attend class so they know what's going on and are able to catch up. We hope with this method, we will be able to finish everything we need to do by the end of the season.

We plan to outreach by creating flyers and attracting crowds, especially at big events.

Having fun as a team is a big part of FTC. It allows us to become closer as a team and enjoy being together. It also improves our core values so that we can work better together when we are actually doing FTC. Since most of us are recurring members from our FLL team, we have already known each other for quite a long time and we are already all friends. This has made it easier for us to communicate among each other. For the new members of our team, we enjoy in many ways, and we are still finding ways to have more fun with each other because we believe that having fun is a huge part of the FTC experience.

There are many amazing websites that help us with FTC such as gm0.org. If you want to start an FTC team, we recommend you use that website. We also use other documents from past seasons by other FTC teams so that we get information from seasoned/veteran FTC teams that know what they are doing. Many of our coding instructions are done by tutorials that are taught by professional programmers that use their skills in the real world.

Having roles helps us efficiently get our work done on time and allows us to work on things we are interested in. Everyone in our team is currently learning the basics of programming, designing in CAD, and building a robot, and outreaching, but as time goes by we will begin to find something that interests us more. That's when roles come in. The people who like to program can program, and the people who like facilitating outreaches can do that. That way we have experts in each area but we are all still educated on what the rest of our team members are doing and we know how to do what they are doing.

We define our roles based on each person's interests and we do not argue on our roles, instead, we compromise. For example, if many people would like to program the robot but no one wants to build it, they will take turns building since it is a necessary component for our success. Our roles are not permanent as flexibility is an integral part of the way we function as a team. Each person shares an equal amount of work, however no one is forced to be in a role they do not want. All of our team members have their specialties and skills but  each of us are involved in every aspect of the competition as well.

We mentor another sister FLL team that is called Blazin Botz. This is our first year mentoring another team as most of our team members graduated from Blazin Botz. We plan on mentoring them in all aspects, not just one. These aspects can include coding, robot design, and a project.