Community Outreach

As an organization, DARC Robotics is very actively involved in the community, not only with the people in the community, but with other BEST competition teams. DARC built a full-sized playing field that not only our team uses, but other BEST competitors as well. Both Austin High School and Decatur High School are Engineering Academy Initiative designated schools, and our previous members now work in the BEST hubs in Music City, Alabama, and Mississippi BEST hubs as mentors to other teams, as well as many staff members in South BEST hub.

DARC continues to be heavily involved in our local community for the 2009 season. In May of this year, DARC provided table displays for the Decatur Business luncheon held at Austin High School. We also regularly send team members to area elementary schools to introduce younger students to engineering and our team. Most recently, team members visited Austinville Elementary in Decatur as a reward for their students with high SAT scores. Additionally, we held a demonstration for International Rotary Organization representatives from Brazil as well as presenting our program to Decatur's Rotary Club. The team also places updated engineering information in the Guidance Offices of both Austin High School and Decatur High School. DARC also recently served as an exhibitor for the 2009 Space and Missile Defense Student Day.

Before Kick-off for Tennessee Valley BEST, we hosted an Open House for the community and teams that are new to BEST in order to offer our assistance as well as to allow newer teams to view a working booth as well as past years' robots. At kick-off, DARC provided breakfast for all teams and supplied two working robots to be used at at future kick-offs. Also for the 2009 competition season, DARC continued a tradition of building a full-size, working playing field in our expansive workshop generously donated by the City of Decatur. This field has been opened up to other teams in the Tennessee Valley BEST Hub who desired to test their robot on a working competition field, which has been instrumental for the 2009 competition due to the complexity of establishing the systems required to communicate with the field. These systems are essential to many teams for their overall game strategy, and DARC is happy to provide a working field for them to practice and test on before competition.

In July 2008, DARC Robotics gathered materials and provided working robots for Teacher/Mentor Workshop held at Auburn University. In 2008, DARC solicited parent and student interest at Athens Middle School and Oak Park Middle School to be BEST competitors. DARC Robotics has visited and worked with elementary schools and pre-schools. DARC sub-contracted to the Special Needs students at Austin High School to make their promotional buttons last year. DARC hosted a Pre-Kick Off workshop for Excalibur and The Way Home School in Madison. In September 2008, DARC hosted Athens Middle School Team and Sponsor for a visit to the Decatur Business Incubator. In August 2008, DARC hosted Faith Christian Academy for Pre-Kick Off team building activity.