Team 91709A Girl Power and Resilience
91709A
Entry ID #: 5225
Created: Wed, Jan 10, 2018 2:52 AM
What We Believe Girl Power Is... Girl Power is the strength and empowerment of independent women as they support each other to accomplish greater tasks in Stem fields. Our Start... Oishee Das, an eighth grader, had decided to start a robotics club in middle school. The robotics club would be doing the Vex EDR game, Nothing But Net, but with the dilemma of finding team members to form a team. Asking her best friend, Shelby, to join, she had another girl to join robotics club. Her coach decided to ask other girls from his robotics class to join the club as well. With four other members joining, Oishee and Shelby had a six-member team consisting of all girls called Canyon Hills Dream Machine. Where Are The Girls...? As the robotics season progressed, the girls continued to improve their robot and own skills. They learned teamwork and many robotic skills to use in their competitions. Their first award was the judge's award which gave them the confidence and momentum to continue their quest as an all-girls team. Throughout the season, Canyon Hills Dream Machine noticed how not many girls were in the field of Stem. Almost every competition had an overwhelming number of boys working on their robots, but where were the girls? The ratio of girls was substantially low compared to the boys in the room. The girls knew continuing as an all-girls team was representing not just themselves and their school, but also giving feminine influence in the Stem field. With their hard work, the girls were invited to the state competition where they would compete to represent their state in the world competition. Winning State At the state competition, we were one of a couple of all-girls teams there. As the state competition went along, we had many ups and downs as the robot was not performing as well as it normally did. Alliance selection came and Canyon Hills Dream Machine was selected to the first alliance team. Competing in finals gave the girls a lot of pressure as winning meant representing women in Stem and being the first all-girls team ever to win at state in California. After going through all the blood, sweat, and tears, the girls won the tournament and was known as the first all-girls team to win the state championship title. Since Canyon Hills Dream Machine won the state championship, the girls had the chance to compete at worlds. Getting the support from their school, they were able to go and gain many memories and experiences that would inspire them for their futures in Stem. Being the first all-girls team to win the state championship, they inspired other girls at their school to join the robotics club. With the expansion of the club, their middle school grew in robotics to push females in Stem. With Oishee and Shelby moving to high school the following year, continuing the program was their next goal. Starstruck Troubles... Oishee and Shelby wanted to bring VEX robotics into Ayala High School with the game Starstruck. They wanted to not only expand the world of robotics they wanted to further involve females into Stem. However, it was hard to start a new club because they didn't have support from the school. Despite their efforts with the club and their robot, they only received one award that year, the Judges award. Starting Fresh In the new game, In the Zone, Oishee and Shelby wanted a new start and were excited to start the new year in robotics. This year two more girls from the Canyon Hills Dream Machine, Kristen and Sidney were coming to Ayala as freshmen and were going to help the two girls further expand robotics at Ayala High. Before starting the club, the four girls needed to create a new team. The girls were all in the school's engineering academy, so they asked around for new members. Two other sophomore girls from Oishee and Shelby's engineering program at school, Jace and Elaine, were interested and joined the team. The new all-girls team was set and was ready for the new year and called themselves Bionic Resilience. At their first competition, the girls won the tournament champion and qualified for state and nationals. Throughout the season, they also earned the build, judges, and excellence awards. In the midst of all their achievements the girls still needed to start their club. Making a Club Starting their club was another hurdle in Oishee and Shelby's path. With previous struggles of trying to start a Vex team at Ayala, the girls were not ready to give up because they had worked so hard to represent all the women in Stem. Continuing to emphasize the importance of girls in robotics, they were able to start their club and are still in the process of growing Stem at their school. Our Achievements Throughout the In the Zone game season, the girls have competed in several different tournaments. Their first competition, Poway, was very successful as the girls won tournament champion and the build award for their amazing design and presentability. In the Damien competition, the girls took home the excellence award for their hard work and positive attitude. At Don Lugo, the girls were able to get the judges award for their well-planned presentation for the judges.