Since its inception, Mitty Robotics has been actively involved in the community, spreading the message of FIRST and promoting science and technology in people's lives. Our outreach can be divided into three major areas:

• Reaching out to the Mitty community
• Promoting FIRST in the outside community
• Reaching out within FIRST itself

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Team 1351 is highly visible at Archbishop Mitty High School through our participation in school assemblies, Freshman Welcome Night, Club Fairs and the annual school Open House for prospective students. We were the only school club invited to present at the 2007 Open House and were an official stop on the tour of the school. We have demonstrated our robot to the Archbishop Mitty High School Board of Regents and Alumni Council to show them what we have accomplished and to get support for increased budget. Another way we have recruited new members and raised the visibility of the team within the school community has been to sponsor Vex Challenges. The Vex Challenge is open to all Mitty students---giving them the opportunity to build a small robot. Current team members lead and instruct the novice roboticists.

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• Robotics Education Day at NASA

  In July 2005, Mitty Robotics was one of the local high schools invited to participate at NASA Ames-Moffett Field for an exciting day devoted to Community Education in Robotics, highlighted by NASA's Mars Exploration Exhibit. Our team members talked to visitors about FIRST Robotics, the various competitions Team 1351 competes in, and the different functions of the "Mark II" (our 2nd year robot) and encouraged them to get involved in robotics. We also appealed to the younger kids' minds with a track near the booth where kids could drive small VEX robots.

• State of the Valley Conferences

  In January 2005 and again in January 2006, Mitty Robotics, Team 1351, showed off one of their robots to about 1,000 CEOs, elected officials, and executive directors and educators at the Silicon Valley Joint Ventures, State of the Valley Conference in San Jose. We displayed awards, pictures, and a robot to assist in talking about FIRST Robotics. During the 2006 conference, FOX Channel 2 News interviewed 3 Mitty students and aired it on TV that night after the conference.

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• San Jose Grand Prix

  In July of 2005 Mitty Robotics participated in the inaugural San Jose Grand Prix. Our entire team spent many weeks building a Hot Wheels race track which would be located at the NBC 11 Television booth. In the weeks before and after the Grand Prix, members of our robotics team took the track to many events. At local art and wine festivals from Livermore to Berryessa, Team 1351 helped NBC not only encourage people to come to the Grand Prix, but also raise money for a local partner of the American Cancer Society. At the various events and the race, attendees contributed donations to race on the Hot Wheels track. The donations went to the Canary Foundation for early identification and isolation of cancer at its most curable stage. Kids could race cars on the track and get a souvenir Champ car for participating. Our track was such a success that we were invited to construct a second one for the 2006 Grand Prix and to operate it at festivals in the Bay Area, including the San Jose Jazz Festival.

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• Robonexus

  It was billed as "THE LARGEST ROBOTICS EVENT IN THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE!" In October 2005 Mitty Robotics participated in this event at the San Jose Convention Center. The RoboNexus Conference and Expo provided an opportunity to the public to learn about robotics, as well as professional development programs for those involved in robotics commercially. We were honored to be invited to be one of several local teams staffing the NASA Robotics Alliance Project booth. At the booth we had a display with pictures from past competitions, handouts with key details about our FIRST robot and the robotics program at Mitty, and our robot. Event organizers included a field with a goal as a feature of the conference, allowing our robot, along with robots from other schools, to have a mock competition.

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• FLL at Los Altos

  We have supported FIRST by sending members from our team to FLL and FTC events in our area. Our team has volunteered at the Los Altos FLL competition for three years, fall of '05, '06, and '07. The FLL competition has two aspects to it. First is the actual arena. Here, the robots created move around a field to complete the year's specific game. The other aspect is judging. FLL teams are judged on several different categories, such as teamwork. When our team members have participated, they have had jobs such as directing teams to their correct classrooms for judging, as well as match queuing, timers, and referees for the actual competition.

  "I have admired the passion and vigor of the young kids."
  ---Sam, Team 1351 President

• FTC at Ohlone Community College

  In this competition in the fall of '07, Sam, Team 1351's president, acted as a robot inspector for the VEX robots. He had a long checklist that each robot must have cleared in order to compete. Sam observed that the kids are very much like the students who participate at the FRC level - some don't hesitate to express their opinions; others are very quiet. As President of Team 1351, he incorporates what he learns at FLL and FTC events about encouraging all team members to be involved.

  "It's truly amazing what kids can do with VEX."
  ---Sam, Team 1351 President

• Phoenix Wellness Faire

  In summer of 2006, our team was invited by Phoenix Technologies Ltd., our primary sponsor that year, to participate in the Phoenix Wellness Faire. There were many booths of various services of interest to employees. Our booth was designed with the purpose of showing the company executives how we used their grant money. We had a team history display board, several representatives from our team, and informational flyers. We also took our Aim High robot "Mark III" to demo for everyone who stopped by our booth. Not only were we showing off our team to our sponsors, but supporting and spreading FIRST through our presentation and information.

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• FRC and FLL Mentoring

  In the summer of 2007, a couple of our team members volunteered at an FLL competition. The first team mentored by a Team 1351 member was Team 2482, Power Surge, consisting of four sixth-graders from Bret Harte Middle School in San Jose. The game they were to participate in was called Power Puzzle. It included multiple tasks based on real life problems with alternative energy. Nick C. described his teaching as based on his own experiences in robotics as well as FIRST values. His team won 1st place at the Gunderson tournament for their presentation on alternative energy, including the importance and uses. They were also in the top 20 teams in the final competition itself.

  The second team mentored by Mitty Robotics members was Team 3452, Team Thunder, a rookie FLL team from St. Lawrence Elementary School in Santa Clara, consisting of boys and girls from the fifth-grade class. Nick T. helped at meetings by mentoring the students in design and programming. Mostly, the kids said that they just loved that he came and supported them. It was said from one of the teachers also there, "Nick from Mitty was an older kid who made them feel like they were doing something that was really cool and important." Our presence and mentoring there encouraged and sparked interest in the young kids in participating in FIRST activities and events, and in spreading the word of robotics at their own school events. The school is very interested in supporting them now because, through our team member’s mentoring, they appreciate the FIRST values of teamwork and creative problem solving.

  At the high school level this year, we have initiated discussion with St. Lawrence Academy and Valley Christian, two high schools that are looking into forming an FRC team in the future. We leave the option open for help and mentorship in the future.

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