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Solar Robot Olympiad Stem Educational Outreach Workshop
The ongoing development of a Solar Bug Bot Olympiad is discussed as an educational outreach workshop that implements electrical components and devices with photovoltaics-powered motors, modeled after Beam robotics. The development of this workshop includes educational demonstrations to middle school students and hands-on educational activities for high school students, with mentoring from students at the collegiate level. The STEM educational effort will implement project-based learning and employ a student feedback mechanism to enable continuous improvement as the workshop continues to evolve. A virtual learning environment will be included in the workshop design to allow for remote participation. Virtual integration will also allow for participation in parallel competitions across various sets of obstacles tied to learning objectives which are related to basic circuits, energy, power, voltage, current, along with the applications of motors and sensors in this context. The expected outcome is a more inclusive, sustainable and available STEM outreach, as well as acclimation to introductory engineering concepts under the guidance of college student mentors.