Mini-Project: An Outreach Event Playbook You Can Reuse

Judges reward outreach that is effective, scalable, sustainable, and creative — the exact words from the executive-summary prompt on spreading the FIRST Mission. The way to hit all four is to stop running one-off events and start running a playbook: a documented template you can drop into any school, library, or partner site. This mini-project builds one.

The playbook document. Create a one-page template with these sections, then fill it for one real event you can run this spring:

1. Goal & definition term. Which official term does this serve? A library demo is Reached and possibly Advocated; a rookie build day is Started or Mentored; a tournament you own is Host. Pick one primary term so the event has a clear rubric mapping.
2. Target audience & count goal. e.g. 'Reach 60 students, grades 4-6, Title I school.' A number you can later verify.
3. Run-of-show (timed). Minute-by-minute: 0:00 intro, 0:10 driving demo, 0:25 hands-on station rotation, 0:50 'how to join FIRST' pitch, 1:00 close.
4. Materials checklist. Robot, battery + charger, bumpers, demo controller, sign-in sheet, QR code to your FLL/FTC interest form.
5. Measurement plan. Sign-in sheet (counts), a 3-question exit slip ('Had you heard of FIRST?', 'Would you join?'), and a photo/quote capture assignment for one student.
6. Documentation outputs. What lands in your tracker: people reached, hours, one quote, one photo, partner contact — already in documentation-form format.

The scalability test. A playbook is only good if another student can run it without you. Hand your draft to a teammate who was not involved and ask them to run a dry run from the document alone. Every place they get stuck is a gap to fix. This is exactly how Team 5985 turned weekly LEGO classes into a program running 'in 38 venues and online' — the format was documented enough that many people could deliver it. They even built '128 PB-created lessons' so the curriculum itself was reusable.

The sustainability hook. Add a built-in pipeline: every event ends with a clear next step ('come to our open build night', QR to a form). 5985 reports that year-round classes raise '83% of PB recruits' — outreach that feeds the team is outreach that lasts, and that is a powerful sustainability story.

Creativity counts. The 'creative' criterion is met by a memorable hook, not a gimmick. 5985's LEGO robots 'fight pirates and play the Royal Game of Ur (from 26,000BCE)!' — a creative framing that makes STEM stick. Give your playbook one signature element kids will talk about.

Deliverable: a finished, tested playbook plus the filled tracker row from running it once. Now you can clone it ten times and report '10 events, 600 students reached' with documentation for every one.