FIRST Global
An annual international robotic “Olympics”-style event brings together youth from around the world to share their passion in STEM. For the 2019 season, 191 countries were represented. 2,500+ youths were impacted around the globe. 800+ volunteers served in the Global STEM Corps (GSC) or worked at the event. 75 teams had no prior robotics experience. 60% of teams were founded, organized, or brought into being by women. 100+ media organizations featured FIRST Global teams internationally.
2021
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Working with the Barboza Space Center to form a Maker's Lab in Benin and ensure that the FIRST Global Benin team has better resources to continue FIRST Global in future seasons.
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Continued global outreach in Benin, Togo, Paraguay, and Ecuador.
2020
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Working with Rachael Orumor, lead mentor of Team Benin, and Team Spyder to integrate STEM into the curriculum of every school in Benin.
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Partner with Team Spyder to guide Team Paraguay in expanding STEM education and robotics community in Paraguay.
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Mentoring FIRST Global Teams Benin and Paraguay with Team Spyder.
2019
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Partner with team Spyder to host Benin's first national robotics competition with the help of Team Spyder donating money and 20 robotics kits. Teams from the 13 schools came to compete (a team from Nigeria and a mentor from Togo came as well). Both teams discussed the integration of STEM education into the school curriculum with the Minister of Education and Telecommunication and the U.S. Ambassador, Patricia Mahoney.
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Team Inspiration, team Spyder and team Mechanical Advantage went to Paraguay to host a robotics competition. We used the game that we created for the mbot competition in Benin. Team Spyder and Team Inspiration discussed the expansion of the FIRST Robotics community with the chancellor and Dean of engineering at the National University of Asuncion.
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Team Inspiration worked on creating the Mentor Guide for the FIRST Global STEM Corps. Both Team Inspiration and Team Spyder mentored FIRST Global teams from Benin, Paraguay, Togo, and Bolivia.
2018
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We supported Benin expansion with the partnership of FRC team Spyder. Team Spyder donated 10 mbot robotics kits to schools in Benin while Team Inspiration donated VEX EDR, VEX IQ, EV3 robotics kit, and 20 expansion kits for the mbot robotics kits donated in 2017. femCoders expanded their STEM training to 7 more schools.
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Mentored Benin's FIRST Global team with Team Spyder
2017
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For the first year of FIRST Global, Team Inspiration was invited to mentor team Benin. Through weekly video calls and online discussion we were able to teach the team about robotics. In the competition, Benin ranked 1st out of all the African teams and 7th in the world!
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We leveraged this success to get the U.S. Embassy in Benin to support the team and to help pay for teachers to teach robotics and STEM classes around the country. Our team donated 10 mbot robotics kits so that the teachers would have a physical robot for the students in the 6 schools to learn with.