CLAYTON – G-Force Robotics, FIRST Robotics Competition team #9008, won the Engineering Inspiration award at the 2024 UNC Pembroke District Competition held March 8-10, 2024. This award is the second-highest team award given at the FIRST Robotics Competition and automatically qualifies the team to advance to the state competition. The award celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school or organization and community.
G-Force Robotics, an all-girl team based in Clayton, N.C., has served more than 3,300 volunteer service hours in the past two years with a majority focused on STEM outreach throughout the state. Their mission is to encourage and inspire girls in science, engineering, technology and math. Their three major initiatives target girls at the elementary, middle and high school levels with a book project for elementary school students, providing free technology classes at Clayton’s Hocutt-Ellington Memorial Library for middle school girls and hosting an annual Women/Girls in STEM Breakfast on the campus of Caterpillar in Clayton.
The 12 high school girls also built a highly competitive, 117-lb robot that placed 4th in the competition’s semi-finals.
The team has another district event at Heritage High School in Wake County March 22-24, 2024 before advancing to play at the FIRST North Carolina state competition at East Carolina University in early April.
While I give these girls all the credit they are due and I watched them during this past competition, I think it’s only fair to also mention the other kids from the area that worked so hard ( and perhaps didn’t have the budget that the girls had) just to be able to show up and try really hard. My example would be Triton High Schools team. Their budget was comparatively much less and I think they did a good job.
https://jocoreport.com/johnston-county-schools-awarded-50000-stem-grant/
There is funding if students/coaches/parents look for it. It takes work. Students/parents/coaches need to advocate with school administrators and lawmakers. A lot of schools talk about supporting STEM, but having administrators put dollars behind it is different. Companies like Apple and Meta have dropped donations in upwards of $50K on NC teams. Again, students need to look…and parents have to be willing to start a non-profit to help those dollars flow to the team versus being caught up in school red tape.
That’s kinda cool but I don’t understand why all the emphasis on all-girls. Is it all girls just by coincidence or are boys actively banned from participating? Nonetheless congrats on the award and good luck in future competitions.
It is an all-girl team by design. Ninety-eight percent of teams globally are male or co-ed. The number of women in engineering/computer science fields in the U.S. is very low. Middle and high school are key years for fostering and maintaining interest in these subjects, but it is also a time when societal pressures to fit in are at their highest…which can make it more challenging for some girls to reach their full potential in STEM technical and leadership roles. When the glass ceiling has been set, and young women are able to break through it, we celebrate their accomplishments and hope their passion continues into college and the workforce.