BALLSTON SPA — The Ballston Spa High School Robotics Team OxBe4 originally coordinated various STEM activities and supplied materials to encourage the spread of STEM education in rural Afghanistan.
After coordinating a donation drive to send LEGO Mindstorm kits to teens in Afghanistan in 2018, FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) Team 3044 is again spreading the word about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education to rural parts of the world. During their most recent campaign to spread STEM education, Team 3044 selected a few simple STEM projects, translated instructions into Pashto and Dari, and conducted a 10-month donation drive, collecting specific items for each STEM activity and general school and craft supplies. The kits have been assembled and the first set of 10 boxes is being shipped to Helmand Province in Afghanistan this week. Each box holds up to 20 pounds of sustainable science activities that can be used for building, problem solving
and experimentation.
Team 3044’s Co-Captain Maddie West indicated “We believe that no matter who you are or where you come from, everyone should have a chance to create their own future and strive to be the best you can be.”
While competitions have been cancelled and all meetings suspended, the team is using social media to share the materials that they have compiled to encourage STEM education with their local community during this time of school closures.
Families are invited to visit the team’s website, frcteam3044.team/, to learn more about the simple but fun STEM projects.
