An all-girl robotics team from Scottsdale, The Techalongs, are headed to a world championship event this week in Houston. And the team is preparing to show the world the difference between magic and mediocrity.
The Techalongs won the Inspire award at last month’s FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), a state competition held at Embry Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott.
The award is given to the team that best embodies the spirit of FTC, acting as a model on and off the playing field. And it also enables the team to attend a competition this week in Houston, hosted by the international youth organization FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).
The FIRST Championship is an annual four-day robotics competition featuring teams from throughout the world.
The Techalongs are one of only three teams representing Arizona at the event, and the only all-girl team in the state.
The small team is essentially self-taught, having learned robotics independently, and has been competing for only three seasons.
Founding coach Diana Laulainen-Schein says when most kids leave for college, they leave their parents with a pet fish or other sort of animal to take over.
However, her son left her something a little different: a team of Girl Scouts turned into a robotics team.
Laulainen-Schein’s son, Jared Schein, used to compete in FTC as part of a team called the Herberger Howlers. Following state competition in 2020, he was searching for ways to expand his team's outreach. That’s when he began working with Girl Scout troops.
“One of the things I think about Girl Scouts and FIRST is that we have many of the same values,” Laulainen-Schein said. “Make the world a better place, be a sister to every Girl Scout, those are things that are valued in FIRST.”
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, they started those outreach efforts online, conducting badge workshops with Troop 2256. These workshops taught the girls more about robotics to gain interest.
Then, in summer 2021, they held their first in-person camp, offering robotics instruction led by Schein. Roughly 120 girls attended.
This led her to start a formal FTC team. She started an interest form and, in 2022, The Techalongs were born.
Their name is a play off the Girl Scout cookies Tagalongs.
As a community team, The Techalongs meet in the garage of one of the coaches' homes, unlike most teams in the state that are school-based.
The team had to build itself from the ground up, starting out with just four girls, a bin of donated spare parts, YouTube tutorials, and a dream.
One of the founding members, Eleanor Lam, recalled knowing nothing about robotics. She had some limited knowledge about coding because of her dad’s job as a programmer.
She read, learned, started programming, and helped build the team’s first model. When the team was unsure how to do something, they went to YouTube and found channels that described how to put together a drive train.
By the end of their first season, they reached out to other teams, improved, and qualified for a state competition.
“We learned a lot on the way in our first year, I think,” Lam said. “We got advice from other teams, we learned from YouTube online resources, and I’m really proud of what this team has become.”
Another member, Alice Augustine, is on the drive team. When she was in 5th grade, she was excited when she came across a flyer advertising her school's First Lego League (FLL), a robotics team.
However, her enthusiasm was dampened after attending her first meeting.
“I sign up, I go, and first of all, it is all boys. And they were rude and never let me do anything, took credit for, like, everything. And so I’m like, ‘This sucks. I love robotics, but I’m not so sure about this team,’” Augustine said.
That summer, she attended Girl Scout camp, where she came across The Techalongs.
“I’m like, ‘Wait a minute, there’s a Girl Scouts robotics team? Oh, I got to sign up for this,’” Augustine said.
She was a year too young to officially join The Techalongs at that time. But that didn’t stop Augustine from getting involved. She threw on a Samoa cookie costume, grabbed green pom-poms, and cheered on the team as their mascot at competitions until she was eligible to join.
Laulaninen-Schein says girls need their own spaces, something the Girls Scouts organization recognizes.
“Studies have shown that girls need their own spaces more than boys need their own spaces,” she said. “Boys do just fine in a co-ed setting, but girls tend to not take those leadership roles, not take initiative. They get talked over, like Alice said.”
Research by Kyra Women’s Project, an organization that supports women in need, shows that all-women spaces offer significant benefits, bringing a sense of safety and comfort. Women experience reduced anxiety and boosted confidence in such settings, the research shows.
The Techalongs’ mission is to break down barriers, create an inclusive environment, and empower girls in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, also known as STEM.
The team won the Inspire award in part for their positive attitude and leadership. For example, they helped ensure menstrual products were available for girls at the state competition.
And as they prepare for the Houston competition, they remain focused on showcasing that The Techalongs are more than just robot-builders – they’re a representation of women in STEM.
“We’re really pushing into that first, like a girl and being ambassadors for women in STEM,” Laulaninen-Schein said.
Another one of the founding members, Maya Hamer, is the team's spokesperson. She markets the team using gracious professionalism, a way of doing things that uplifts competitors.
“It just feels really good that when you occasionally see other girls in other teams, and it’s growing increasingly, that the people representing women in STEM are competing highly,” Hamer said.
The team will compete Wednesday through Saturday in Houston.
EDITOR'S NOTE: The story has been updated to correct who led the in-person robotics instruction camp in 2021.
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