Essay On Becoming Heroes

Becoming Heroes FIRST

A fireman, a princess, an astronaut, a superhero; all of these are a child’s answers to the question, “what do you want to be when you grow up”. This dream and aspiration often fades as a child ages, but there is a select group of people that hang on to these aspirations and turn them into a reality. FIRST Robotics is a segway into the world of STEM and innovation. Team 1566, also known as the Ammoknights, strives to turn these dreams into a reality through community involvement, a safe and team driven learning environment, and positive relationships between its team members and members of other teams.

History of Community Involvement

Once upon a time, in the year 2005, team 1566 was formed in Hillcrest high school. The team began

Team 1566 has great mentors that show up daily to supervise and help answer questions. Mr. Thomas is the teams head mentor and he has a talent of directing kids toward answers without simply giving them. Encouraging students to problem solve on their own helps them to develop greater cognitive thinking skills. Innovations and improvements to robot design often come through questions being asked that allow students to come to their own answers. The team has multiple meetings to discuss various things. Most meetings end in a consensus on what changes can be made to the robot or events that the team can help with etc. By holding meetings everyone is able to know what happening in different areas of the team. Being a student driven team allows for work to continue without constant supervision of mentors. Progress is still made if the adults have to step out or take care of other things. This setup better prepares students for real world situations and provides a sense of accomplishment when difficulties and setbacks are worked