A group of local Girl Scouts recently completed their first season of competitive robotics and are looking forward to further competitions down the line as they take early steps into some heavily male-dominated fields.

Bob and Trish Manning spoke about this latest activity from some of the members of Waterloo Girl Scout Troop 387, which includes their daughter Sage.

As Bob and Trish explained, Sage has been part of the troop for several years now. In 2022, some of the troop’s parents began talking about pursuing a robotics program for the girls when troop leader Cara Kettler sent notice about an information session regarding the FIRST LEGO League Challenge, a competition organized by FIRST Illinois Robotics.

They attended and left with the feeling that the competition was something Sage and some of her friends might enjoy.

Reporting back to Kettler, they were met with great support, with fellow Girl Scout parents Matt and Lori House volunteering to join as coaches alongside them.

As Trish noted, the members of the troop interested in pursuing the competition also received financial support to participate from a sponsorship through Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois.

“It’s really cool that our girls could join, and all we had to do was put in the work to create a team,” Trish said.

Members of the troop participated in the program over the course of several months last year, with a substantial amount of prep-work taking place before the main competition.

That prep involved the girls planning and building a robot that ultimately wound up competing against the other teams’ creations in December.

As a major learning component of the program, the kids also conducted a research project meant to bring some sort of innovation into their community, presenting their efforts to a panel of judges at the final competition.

Trish and Bob described the various aspects of science, technology, engineering, art and math that went into the program as the girls constructed their robot and LEGO build, also doing some introductory coding to ensure that their machine could maneuver and interact with objects however it needed to.

“Some girls have different interests within the program, of course,” Bob said. “There’s a couple girls who are really into the coding, some girls really like the building and some like the poster-building that we do, so it varies.”

With a strong performance at its inaugural competition, Bob said the team has been meeting in their off-season to keep their skills fresh and get some more practice in before they begin another competition coming up in August.

Both he and Trish expressed thoughts on how beneficial participation in the program seems to be for Sage and the other kids on the team.

Bob spoke to his experience with his military background, noting how often women can be pushed away from fields they might wish to pursue.

He also touched on some of what he’s learned in his work as a teacher.

“With my background in elementary education, I have some understanding of the formative years, those first few years through grade six,” Bob said. “My daughter, now in fifth grade approaching sixth grade for the middle school, is in a crucial time where sometimes peer pressure can kind of bring down the level of excitement or energy girls can have in science and math and even the art fields.”

Bob further described how he hopes to help expose the kids to a variety of fields they might not know very much about.

Trish expressed similar sentiments, additionally noting how the program has allowed the girls to take on leadership roles with simply general guidance from her and the other coaches.

“I am so excited and inspired that we have this program in Waterloo and that we coaches are so committed to continuing it and to growing it,” Trish said. “It’s girl-led, first of all. The coaches aren’t sitting there going ‘Here’s how to do it and here’s what you need to do. No, don’t do it that way.’ The coaches are supporting them from below and allowing them to lead.”

She further emphasized the efforts of the girls who have been tremendously supportive of each other, this peer group with mutual interests providing them with a strong foundation for further STEAM pursuits.

Sage, too, spoke about her experience in the latest competition and what it’s done for her and her friends.

She noted how the group’s coaches have helped make things fun as they get experience both in their engineering and presenting.

Sage also expressed a strong lean toward the programming aspect of the competition.

“I’m personally more of a geek who likes to do the coding, and I really enjoy that I can learn so many things, even though it is, maybe, a bit simple, I can still learn so many things and hang out with girls and have a good time,” Sage said.

Also speaking in favor of the program was Girl Scouts of Southern Illinois CEO Loretta Graham, who recalled interacting with a young engineer hoping to one day create a major mobility aid to help people.

She voiced her high expectations of Sage and the other Waterloo girls participating.

“It is very, very valuable,” Graham said. “These areas in which these girls are working, these robotics fields and all of these STEM fields, it’s areas of work that you hardly see girls in… The importance of girls being in these fields, there isn’t a word to describe it.”

Looking ahead, the group still has several months before their next big competition is underway.

Even further down the road, at least one participant is eager to pursue a STEAM career in an effort to help those around her.

“I’ve really been considering it because I’d like to make something that will help change the world,” Sage said. “I feel like engineering really helps do that because you can make that awesome new invention that everyone’s like ‘Yes! It’s cool! It makes our lives easier.’”

While the current group consists of girls from Troop 387, Bob noted that the opportunity is open to all girls in the community ages 9-11.

Parents of interested girls can contact Trish at trishmanning09@gmail.com.