Since Team 1748 creation in 2005, we have made great strides in fostering interest in science and technology.  We, Lab Rats, achieved considerable success within the first two years, winning several awards.  Outside of the competitions, the Lab Rats provided support to other FIRST teams, mentored new teams even in our early years, and instructed Baltimore City Public School teachers at professional development sessions, thus helping to create a community devoted to increasing student involvement and interest in science and technology. Our activities continue to channel the creative and scientific talents of our students and, through them, the community.  We are determined to increase and nurture student interests in the sciences as well as encouraging them to become problem solvers and innovator.

All team members are required to take a robotics class in which they learn basic programming, construction, and mechanical designs in addition to a variety of other Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related topics. This helps increase the individual students’ application skills in science and technology by making robotics universally accessible.  In the class, the students cover basic pneumatics, electrical concepts, and technical designs.  This class is open to any Dunbar or Patterson students (at their respective schools) who wish to apply, regardless of their grade.  If a student does not sign up in their freshman year, but hears about the team later, they can take the class later and participate in the team then.  This flexibility allows us to reach more students, since it permits a student whose schedule could not accommodate the class one year to take it the next.

Two-thousand five was the inaugural season for the Dunbar Lab Rats, and we have continued to provide a solid program to support student interest in robotics despite all of the problems. Our ongoing mission is to create a pipeline from the Baltimore City School System into STEM related degree programs. Despite our many obstacles, we have enjoyed the most success of any robotics team in the city. We are in the process of spreading our success with the motto, “One City, One Team”.

The Lab Rats provides students with a vested interest in science and technology.  Robotics lets students see, touch, and work with concepts they would otherwise completely miss.  This lets us understand what we are working for.  STEM then becomes real to us, and an achievable, worthwhile goal.  Rather than an abstract set of concepts designed to make high school hard, math and science now seem like a gateway into a future full of possibilities for college and employment.