During competitions, it was very rewarding to share what we had learned and help other teams with their robots. Over the years we have enjoyed supporting new teams through the build season and help them to build their robots and their teams. We helped Evergreen High School (also in the Highline School district) to start their own FRC team last year and share many of our resources with them. We held an FRC scrimmage in our gym this past fall that was attended by many other local teams. It was fun to relax, play the game and talk robots and we hope to make this an annual event.

FIRST Lego League (FLL)

We bring our robots to schools throughout our district to generate interest in robotics and promote FLL teams. In the fall, we hosted the Des Moines Regional FIRST Lego League in our gym. It is always a lot of fun and our team enjoys running the event. We have helped start FLL teams at several schools in our district and send out student members to aid and encourage these young students and promote FIRST.

VEX Robotics

The VEX Robotics Competition is the largest and fastest growing middle and high school robotics program globally with more than 2,000 teams from 20 countries playing in over 150 tournaments worldwide. Students, with help from their teachers and mentors, build innovative robots and work together to obtain the most points possible. In addition to having a great time and building amazing robots, through their participation in the VEX Robotics Competition and their work within their team, students will learn many academic and life skills. The intention of the VEX team is to give newer members knowledge in the process of building a robot and working as a team.

Elementary Robotics

Skunkworks has helped several elementary schools in the area with after-school programs to learn math and science. Our team members meet with groups of students after school and build kits with K’Nex and Tinker Toys to teach. All of the students enjoy these programs and look forward to each meeting. One of these schools is Midway Elementary in Des Moines where we worked with students in the spring of 2009.