"The Botball Educational Robotics Program: Engineering outreach for middle school, high school and college students"

This paper will describe the Botball Educational Robotics Program, an engineering outreach program that uses the activities of designing, building, and programming robots to engage students in the fields of engineering, science, technology, and math.Botball was originally designed for middle and high school students, but a collegiate division was added last year to allow students to continue their involvement after graduation and to give university students a hands-on engineering and computer programming project.A recent study shows that about one-third of the middle and high school Botball students surveyed felt that participating in Botball had influenced their career choice; and of those who were influenced, ninety-four percent decided to pursue a career in a technical or engineering field.A discussion of how colleges and universities are using Botball as an engineering outreach and recruiting tool is included.