Startup Nonprofit Virtual Summer Volunteer Opportunity

Save to Favorites

Overview

Robotics for All is a non-profit organization which aims to educate students from low income families in robotics. The mission statement of Robotics for All is: "Robotics for All strives to educate students from disadvantaged communities in robotics and STEM to help them gain beneficial skills which will be useful throughout the rest of their academic and professional careers." During normal times, Robotics for All teaches free after school classes to students in low-income communities. The 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic has rendered these classes infeasible, and simultaneously worsened the opportunity gap in low-income communities. As the pandemic drags on, Robotics for All is exploring online instruction and other ways to help the community when social distancing measures are still in place.

This summer, Robotics for All is seeking volunteers to build the infrastructure for and establish alternative ways of instruction. There is a wide range of tasks available for everyone with different skill sets. If you are interested, please read below for more details.

Details

Time Commitment

• 3-20 hours/week
• You may choose as many/as few tasks to complete. Inform us how many hours/week you want to put in and we will work with it.
• Weekly/Bi-Weekly Calls
• You will likely be working in a team of 2-5 other volunteers working on a particular task. Each group will have weekly calls. The number of weekly calls that you will have depends on how many groups you choose to join.
• All other work can be done at flexible hours.

Tasks

• As mentioned above, there will be a number of tasks from which you can choose. Most tasks involve working in a group of 2-5 other volunteers, but some are independent projects.
• The following is a list of tasks that Robotics for All will be completing this summer (this list may be updated)
• Establishing an online teaching platform
• We need to establish an online web platform to match students with our available classes. This can either be done with an existing platform or we can create a new one from scratch.
• Creating a robotics-related curriculum that can be taught entirely online.
• Some platforms that are currently being looked into are Scratch and Unity.
• We will be developing multiple curricula with different platforms for our online-classes.
• Creating volunteer training procedures
• We want to make sure our training procedures are thorough and streamlined, so we will be brainstorming ways to improve it.
• We will likely split up training into:
1. Classroom management and professionalism expectations
2. Curriculum-specific training (example: how to use the LEGO Mindstorms EV3 software)
• Improving our volunteer-vetting process.
• We want to establish objective measures on evaluating volunteers and verifying references, especially since our volunteers interact directly with students.
• Coordinating Online Classes
• This will involve coordinating the times of classes to match the schedules of volunteers and students.
• Improving the aesthetics and functionality of our website: www.roboticsforall.net .
• There are not any pressing things to be taken care of, but our website could always use improvement in terms of visual flow, ease of information, and user friendliness.
• Developing our in-person mBot ( https://www.makeblock.com/mbot ) robotics curriculum for when we are able to resume classroom instruction.
• Our goal is to develop a seven week curriculum using mBots for 6th-7th graders.
• Researching and writing grants.
• While we currently have enough funding to sustain through at least the next year, more funding can always be beneficial.
• This work will simply entail writing grants and can be done independently.

Benefits

• This is a volunteer opportunity, so it is unpaid. However, you will earn community service hours for all work (the honor system applies when reporting hours).
• Volunteering for Robotics for All will look good on any resume, whether applying for a future internship, job, or college.
• Potential future leadership opportunities (Robotics for All board, etc.) may be offered.
• Experience the satisfaction of improving your local community.

Requirements

• In high school or have graduated from high school.
• Consistent access to a computer and wifi at home.

Beneficial Qualifications

• Qualifications vary, because each one of our tasks require different skill sets. Having experience in any of the following will be beneficial:
• Teaching elementary school and middle school students
• Building websites with HTML
• Drag-and-drop based website builders such as Weebly
• Writing grants or strong general analytical writing skills
• Robotics platforms such as LEGO Mindstorms EV3, mBot and Arduino
• Online coding platforms such as Scratch
• Creating publicity materials, including flyers and advertisements
• Managing social media business accounts
• For all tasks:
• Strong communication skills
• The ability to work effectively in a team.

Application Process

We encourage all interested to apply. The application process is very simple, and only requires about 30 minutes. To access the application, please visit https://www.roboticsforall.net/2020-summer-volunteering.html .

Once you have submitted your application, you will receive a reply within two business days for a casual interview over video call.

Contact

We encourage you to ask questions that you have. Feel free to email info@roboticsforall.net or message us on through Facebook or Instagram.