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5. 9635C - Girls Can Do Anything

“The term Girl Powered is used in reference to an attitude of independence, confidence, and empowerment among young women.”  When we first started robotics, we knew that it has been unusual for women to do robotics, but we decided to participate anyway. When we went to our first competition, we noticed there were only 5  girls out of 40 competitors including ourselves. We felt out of place and that we didn't belong with all the boys. Little did we know that in six short months we would be competing with people from all over the world, and we would still be one of the few girls who did  robotics. When we walked in to the 2017 VEX Worlds,  we were amazed to see about forty-five girls, out of over one thousand teams. Finally, out of two hundred fifty teams, we won the STEM Project Award for our division proving that girls can do anything.   My role model is Katherine Coleman Goble Johnson because she trail blazed the path for other women to go into engineering. When Katherine Johnson started at NASA, it was very uncommon for women to be in engineering, especially an African-American woman. Engineering was considered a man’s job, but Katherine was one of the first African-American women to have a job at NASA. Katherine Johnson faced many challenges when she worked at NASA. She had to prove almost everyone that she was just as smart as the rest of the workers. Katherine started out as a computer, which is a term for people who worked in NASA who computed problems, and moved up to one of the head calculators. Katherine is my role model because even though the odds were low, she never gave up, tried her best, and stood up for what she believed in. I want to be just like Katherine Johnson and be an aeronautical engineer at NASA because Katherine’s goal was to have more women in engineering and only one out of five engineering students are women.   When most people hear robotics, they think of typical NERDS with glasses, braces, and suspenders, and even I used to view it that way. But last year, our school created a lower school robotics team; since my dad earned college degrees in engineering and programming, I was pretty much forced  into signing up. After meeting the few people who had signed up and after building a robot, I realized that it wasn’t really an unusual thing to do, in fact it was what I looked forward to every week. After our success last year, I was excited to learn C code, and program like how it would be done in the professional world. But like last year, there were only 3 girls, but 6 boys. I was discouraged, but I have learned that girls are just as important as boys. There are more girls involved in robotics than you would think. I went to the Girl Powered event last year at Worlds, and saw many women leaders from around the world who have inspired our group and many others. One example is Ada Lovelace, even though her program was used after she had died, she was one of the first people to program an algorithm that is now used everyday, out of men and women. Clara Barton was not involved in robotics, but she was an amazing leader. She founded the American Red Cross, after the President didn’t let them sign up for the Red Cross Foundation. Our school’s financial officer, Mr. Efird, said, “Girls are just as smart and just as strong as boys.” This showed us that we didn't have to be scared to do something that was unusual.   “Girls do everything from programming to building, and writing in our journal.” says Jackson Turner, a member of our sixth grade robotics team. Girls can play a big role in robotics. From building robots to programming actions for the robot, girls can do it all. Most people think that girls can’t do robotics, but girls are just as capable as anyone else. Girls do many important jobs in robotics. There are many positions girls around the world have that might relate to robotics. For example, designers, engineers, and, of course, programmers or coders. They all work  together as a team to accomplish their goal. Each of those examples are very broad because there are hundreds of jobs that might be apart of just the designing, not even including engineering or coding. But one thing I know for sure is that girls have different ideas that will improve your final result. Girls play a key  role in robotics because of their imagination, motivation, and courageousness.   In conclusion, we have learned a multitude of ways that girls are involved in robotics just as much as boys. From building a competition robot to typing  code, girls can do anything to help our robotics team. The way our team connects is amazing, both girls and boys, are friends, and it makes our team stronger and stronger.   Thanks for inspiring girls around the world just like us!                                  Caelyn, Clara, and Kennedy   Credits:   Caelyn Miller, Clara Sadowski, and Kennedy Rogers 9635C - Charlotte Christian Sixth Grade RoboKnights Girls Can Do Anything!!! All pictures taken by Charlotte Christian School. Girl Powered definition from dictionary.com