The Fembots this season have been just as, if not more, active in their community as ever. This year, we took upon ourselves a difficult challenge which entailed commencing FIRST Lego League robotics teams at two catholic elementary schools, namely St. Ignatius (SI) and Our Lady of Assumption (OLA). The idea for the origination of this project came from not only a new service requirement at our school for the junior class and all classes following (the development of a personal service project that brings something novel to your community) but also a simple desire on our part to promote the education of elementary students in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics. As a team, we banded together and made several presentations to catholic elementary school administrations over the summer. Our presentations consisted of the advantages we believed FLL could have for their students, and furthermore, the ways in which our mentoring them could prove to be genuinely enriching and educationally beneficial to students at their school interested in participating in a robotics program. Although only two schools thus far have taken up our offer, we have heard from a large number of other catholic schools that are interested in participating next year. However, mentoring two new teams this year proved to be plenty of work in itself. Additionally, we continued to mentor Sam Brannan, an elementary school in Sacramento where the Sacramento Regional for FLL was held this past December. From having to train the kids in effective speech-delivery to helping them develop design stratagems for their robot, mentoring two new FLL teams was not only a fulfilling experience for the students we mentored but for us, as well. A particular Fembot made a mention that, often children make the best teachers as they can often be the most understanding. More information about the competition held in December and Fembots experiences mentoring OLA and SI can be found in the December issue of The Drill, a Fembots publication.

"OLA Hard at Work!"