Community Outreach

The Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy's Robotics Team 1717 students present our current and past robots at local businesses and schools. Giving presentations at Dos Pueblos as well as at local junior high and elementary schools excites younger students about engineering and increases interest in the DPEA, while presenting for local businesses increases awareness in the community. Over the years, many of these businesses have become our partners. Meanwhile, students in the Dos Pueblos Engineering Academy are encouraged to attend the robotics competitions before their senior year (when they are on the team), in order to gain a better understanding of FIRST Robotics.

This year, several students on Team 1717 mentored an all-girls FIRST Lego League team, the Robo-Kitties. We taught them how to program Lego Mindstorms and how to think critically to solve problems. The young girls' attitudes changed from uninterested to engaged and inspired. The team attended a qualifier, where they placed fifth out of twenty-five teams.

Some of our students also mentored junior high students through a program designed to help talented students who lack the resources to succeed. Our students go to the junior high schools twice a week, an hour at a time, to help the younger students work on their homework and science fair projects. They have become role models for how to study and how to be a self-motivated student. The small age difference makes learning easier for the junior high students, and our engineering students enjoy teaching them, at the same time becoming better communicators themselves.