National School Choice Week: On January 22, 2018, three of our team members attended this event at the State Capitol. School choice means giving parents access to the best K-12 education options for their children. Paragon’s “choice” is a STEM focus to prepare students for successful futures. This coincides with our FTC team’s mission statement in promoting FIRST. On January 22, 2018, we promoted FIRST and told people about our robotics team and the FIRST programs. To learn more about NSCW, visit www.schoolchoiceweek.com .
Marvell Semiconductor Inc: On February 2, 2018, members of our Outreach and Building Teams visited Marvell Semiconductor Inc. We promoted FIRST, our Club, and our school with brochures and business cards that we designed (see attached). At the event, our team set up and drove the robot. Our members answered questions from Marvell employees and worked with them to control and drive our robot.
Chandler Science Spectacular: Science Saturday
On Saturday, February 17, 2018, some members of our team attended the Chandler, AZ Science Spectacular. Our team passed out our brochures and business cards (see attached) to help promote FIRST, our Club, and our school. We also interacted with the youth and explained all of the FIRST Programs. The children played with our robot and had the opportunity to ask questions. This annual event in Chandler featured various companies and organizations as they demonstrated the importance of science to our daily lives through family-friendly activities and interactive demonstrations. We were happy to participate in this event to how to explain and show how FIRST is part of our lives today and how FIRST promotes the importance of not only science but all of STEM, today and every day. The City of Chandler is the “Innovation and Technology” hub of the Southwest. For our Robotics Club, the Paragon Panthers FIRST is our ‘hub’ of support, inspiration, resources and much more as we learn more each day about FIRST Tech Challenge
Center for Educational Excellence (CEE): We attended the Center for Educational Excellence’s school Science Fair on February 27, 2018, from 4 – 5:30 pm. 
Just like the Chandler Science Spectacular, we passed out our brochures and business cards (see attached) to help promote FIRST, our Club, and our school. We also interacted with the youth, families, teachers, and staff to explain the FIRST Programs. We answered questions like “How did you build your robot?” “Can we join your Robotics Club?” We spoke with the school Principal and Director, Mrs. Stacey Cochran, about working with her to begin setting up and mentoring a FIRST Robotics Club at CEE. We are excited about this potential opportunity because we can now work to begin meeting our challenge/goal of mentoring for the FIRST programs in a larger capacity.
Coach Robert’s Annual Potluck Gathering: On March 17th, some of our team members attended Head Coach Robert’s Annual Potluck Gathering to have fun, celebrate our season, eat great food, show off our robot, and promote FIRST!! At the gathering, we demonstrated our robot and allowed others to interact with it. We also passed out our brochures and business cards (see attached) to help promote FIRST, our school, and our club.
Watch our YouTube Video
Through Support My Club-one of our sponsors-we have a working relationship to provide community service in return for receiving materials through the program. In other words, when we receive a certain value amount of materials, we are required to volunteer. After getting $200 worth of materials for our robot, we decided to help out at Feed My Starving Children. On Wednesday, March 28th, 2018 from 3:30-5: 30 pm, our team helped to pack 192 boxes, which made up 41,472 meals that fed 113 children for a year!
