The Hackbots are a diverse and collaborative team, and each year we inspire our community as volunteers, allowing us to push boundaries for STEM through building robots while also supporting causes close to our hearts: service and sustainability. Our mission is to inspire students to use their hands-on experience and leadership skills as they move forward in life. The Hackbots have a commitment to outreach which can be seen in our philosophy: instead of using the community to build STEM, we use STEM to build the community. This is why each member performs 5 various outreach events throughout the season, including the ones listed below.
FAAPN Tutoring
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To increase team diversity, especially within the African American population, The Hackbots are working with a local organization, the Farmington African American Parent Network (FAAPN) to help tutor at Super Saturdays, a weekly event to help supplement children's education. Along with providing tutors, we have also hosted a demonstration of our robot to introduce the kids to STEM and our team.
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Hygiene Drive
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For the past six years, The Hackbots have continued its relationship with Operation Common Good(OCG) in conducting a Hygiene Drive, distributing the supplies to families in need in the Farmington/Farmington Hills Community. The drive is usually run in January through mid-February; however, this year the Hackbots hosted the drive in early November. The team has successfully collected thousands of items over the years from generous community members.
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Giving-Bot
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The Hackbots once again partnered with Operation Common Good for the fifth time to help give gifts to families in need during the holiday season. Hackbots members would take a tag off our robot (the tree) and purchase the requested gift. At the end of this event, the team successfully donated gifts to families in the Farmington/Farmington Hills area. The Hackbots plan to continue this annually as it is a very rewarding experience.
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HackBoxes
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In the past year, the Hackbots have grown their responsibility of making and upkeeping more donation boxes at various community locations. Similar to Little Free Libraries, the Hackbots created the boxes to “give what you can and take what you need” system to use our giving community to provide resources for the less fortunate. In conjunction with OCG, we made and placed the boxes, which OCG then fills with clothing and hygiene items. The boxes are maintained by the Hackbots, and this year enhanced with technology to receive a notification every time an item is taken so they can replenish supplies. The box is very important to the team because those in need within the community have easy access to hygiene products, sanitizing supplies, and clothing.
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STEM Kits
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In 2018, we started making Summer STEM kits, which are free and available year-round at 9 community locations. We expanded this program globally in 2020 by providing over 150 STEM kits to students at the Los Brazos school in the Dominican Republic. The kits were translated to Spanish to help further their STEM education. Last season, we’ve piloted a new program in our school district, providing STEM kits to one of our 9 elementary schools. We sought out funding, developed and assembled kits, and are in the process of delivering kits to the school. We created a Youtube video with step-by-step instructions to build the kits. This allowed science teachers to enhance their classroom learning with their own schedule. This year, we are rolling these STEM kits out to more elementary schools across the district with the eventual goal of having the program in every elementary school in the Farmington/Farmington Hills community.
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FTC Teams
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The Hackbots helped start four FTC teams, the Hackbytes at Power Middle School, The STEAM Bots at Farmington STEAM Academy, The CyberVikings at Warner Middle School and the Engineers at Our Lady of Sorrows. The teams share a working space with the Hackbots throughout the pre-season, allowing for continuous assistance when needed. The Hackbots often mentor and assist the FTC teams in the creation of their robots, graphics, and other endeavors.
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