Before reading this heartwarming story, please read about the two teams this story is about. Degrees of Freedom is a community high school robotics team from Chandler, AZ and Desert WAVE is a collegiate all-woman robotics team consisting primarily of students from Arizona State University (ASU). Both teams were founded by the Si Se Puede Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to providing educational STEM opportunities to all underserved populations in Arizona. The two teams have created a big sister-little sister relationship through which they've connected at team bonding nights, supported each other at competitions, and organized outreach events together.

Presenting a child in need with a toy to help them learn.

This story is about one specific outreach project where they teamed up to help young children with physical disabilities. One Christmas, a nonprofit organization in Phoenix, AZ for people with developmental disabilities called ACCEL, invited Degrees of Freedom and Desert WAVE to adapt toys for children who lacked the motor skills to use them on their own.

Imagine being a child that has never had the opportunity to play with a toy or to play with another kid? Adapted toys make these a possibility for these children. In addition to assisting with socialization, these adapted toys also help the children to learn important concepts like cause and effect that can help them with eventually learning how to drive a motorized wheelchair, leading to greater autonomy later in life. Together, Desert WAVE and Degrees of Freedom adapted a dozen of these toys.

This outreach event was also an opportunity for Desert WAVE and Degrees of Freedom to bond. One student from Desert WAVE recounted:

And a student from Degrees of Freedom said:

Teams Desert WAVE and Degrees of Freedom collaborating on adapted Christmas presents.

Daniel Frank is an Assitant Teaching Professor at Arizona State University. During the pandemic he began to write short stories recounting the tales of different robotics teams he had previously worked with. He shared these stories with his team to encourage them to keep working hard during such uncertain times and has graciously shared this one with EngineerGirl.

If you have any inspiring stories of your own to share, we'd love to hear about and post them! Please share them with EngineerGirl@nae.edu.