Outreach

The Harlem Knights has been active in spreading the message of FIRST by mentoring FDA students in math and science through the building of miniature VEX robots in the Robotics and Engineering Classes offered by the school. In 2009-2010, the team designed two games for the students to compete in using VEX robots. In May of 2010, the Harlem Knights and FDA Robotics Classes participated in Super Saturday! Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM) Expo at the Harlem 369th Regiment Armory. Harlem Knights team members ran a game called Robo-Nucleic Acid. They were key in setting up the event, judging the game, coaching the students, and making sure the game ran smoothly. Several of the team members also gave demonstrations to the local community of one of their own 120-pound robots.

In the spring of 2011, members of the Harlem Knights Robotics Team reached out to six Non-Profit Organizations in New York to explore how they could give back to the community by using their science and engineering skills to meet their specific needs. Their projects ranged from building a portable indoor pitching mound for the school baseball team, designing a programmable way for a Harlem Charity to water its agricultural science projects, and creating an interactive fundraising poster for buildOn (an organization that builds schools in Africa), to restructuring the supply room at a recreation center and integrating the room with the City’s inventory system. The Harlem Knights Robotics Team is eager to pass on their enthusiasm for engineering and show how science and math can be applied in practical and exciting ways.