$10,000 donated to Grizzly Bots Robotics

The board of the Tahoma Schools Foundation was thrilled to grant $10,000 to the Summit Trail Middle School Grizzly Bots robotics program for 25 laptops with the Autodesk Inventor Computer Aided Drafting system, and a computer cart.

This project fits our mission, and we were excited to be able to award this grant.

“The laptops you have granted our robotics club are already making an impact on our club, on our school, and soon, in our community,” club adviser Dawn Boster wrote in a thank you email to the foundation.

The Autodesk system is the same CAD that the high school’s Bear Metal team uses, so Summit Trail’s team members will be even more prepared for their transition to the high school team. The Grizzly Bots are in their off season, and are planning an all-girls programming/robotics workshop in the spring, Boster said.

“As a club, we realize that we need to encourage women in STEM. This also feeds into the arc of robotics in Tahoma, as Bear Metal annually hosts Girls Gen robotics competitions that encourage and support women leadership in STEM,” she added. “Our students are also going to continue improving their proficiency in programming LEGO Mindstorm EV3, so that we can mentor younger FIRST Lego League teams, as well as teach new incoming students next year.”