Between April 29 and May 2, head downtown to support our future inventors and innovators in the close of yet another robotics season at the 2020 FIRST Championship, the world’s largest celebration of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) for students. The annual event (which for the last three years has been held in Detroit) will bring together tens of thousands of students from all over the world who participate in FIRST’s PreK-12 robotics program.
Not only is FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) a global robotics community that annually prepares 660,000 young people in 110 countries for the future, but it is also the world’s leading youth-serving nonprofit that is advancing STEM education, offering over $80 million in college scholarship opportunities.
Its mission is “to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that will foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication and leadership,” and Michigan actually has more FIRST robotics teams than any state in the US.
FIRST robotics teams run like small businesses. Students know their end product goal, but they have to obtain startup funds, learn how to talk to sponsors, put together a presentation, speak succinctly to judges and much more.
“It’s more than just robots,” president at FIRST in Michigan Gail Alpert explained. “Every single thing we do builds the whole person. In fact, founder of FIRST Dean Kamen always says, ‘We’re not using kids to build robots. We’re using robots to build kids.’”
Alpert was a coach of her son’s high school robotics team in 2000, but prior to this role, she said she was not familiar with the program at all.
“I was actually selling real estate at the time,” Alpert said, laughing. “I wanted to keep him happy and safe. As I watched though, I was just amazed. And I was able to learn right alongside him.”
Jonathon and Sarah Jacobs were also inspired by their child’s life-changing experience in robotics, so much, in fact, that they actually decided to open up Birminghma’s The Robot Garage, a maker space that teaches engineering and robotics to kids, in 2011 and then a second location in Rochester Hills in 2014. The company began when their oldest daughter, Jane, was in ninth grade on a Bloomfield Hills team.
“When her team made it to the State Finals, we realized there were millions of kids like Jane, and if these students were not fortunate enough to be at a school with robotics, they had no access to these amazing programs,” Sarah Jacobs said. “This day and age, you don’t have to want to be an engineer, but if we’re all going to be working with robots and artificial intelligence, there’s such nice ways to teach kids the fundamentals. We simply wanted to create an accessible place in the community where everyone can come and feel successful.”
The Robot Garage has a longstanding partnership with FIRST. In fact, FIRST has hired The Robot Garage exclusively to travel through Michigan to train the majority of the state’s rookie teams over the past five years. The Robot Garage even hosts weekly FIRST studio nights during “build season” for teams to get help.
“There are a lot of STEM providers, but The Robot Garage is the only one who focuses on this one niche,” Sarah Jacobs said. “This is all we do, 24/7. We have 110 employees, including both part-time and full-time staff, as well as high schoolers and college students.”
The Robot Garage’s two locations offer classes in the spring, fall and winter for children starting as young as age four. During the summer months, there are a variety of week-long camps available for kids first through eighth grade, too.
“Most of our classes and camps actually align with that of FIRST,” Sarah Jacobs explained. “They are meant to provide kids with a strong foundation.”
The Robot Garage is located at both 637 S. Eton St. in Birmingham and 1659 W. Hamlin Rd. in Rochester Hills. For more information about The Robot Garage’s classes or summer offerings, visit therobotgarage.com.