[TODO: Learn by building photo]
Learn by building
Students turn engineering ideas into working mechanisms, code, and presentations, and get confident by doing it.
Who we are
Student mentors, building access.
Spark Gears exists to make high-quality robotics education easier to start, easier to teach, and easier to share.
A nonprofit that hands out the playbook.
Spark Gears Initiative helps FTC teams, especially rookie teams, run free STEM outreach in their own communities, and partners with schools from Title I classrooms in the DMV to partners in India. We give teams a step-by-step roadmap, supply kits, and a mentor to call, so a first outreach event doesn't have to be built from scratch.
Arduino kits, lesson plans, slides, and activities are one part of that toolkit. Our work is grounded in practical learning: students from age 8 and up gain confidence through projects that teach programming, CAD, the engineering design process, and FTC-style competitive robotics, building, testing, troubleshooting, and explaining their work with student mentors alongside them.
What we believe
Three rules we teach by.
Access first
Our courses are free and open to students of every background, so cost and experience are never the barrier.
Share what works
We publish our course materials free of charge so every lesson can be repeated, remixed, and improved.
Goals
What we're building toward.
Programs that communities can keep running on their own, not one-time demos.
Accessible STEM
Bring robotics, coding, CAD, and engineering design to students who might not otherwise have a structured technical program.
Reusable curriculum
Maintain Arduino kit guides, lesson plans, slides, activities, and event formats other groups can pick up and use.
Local leadership
Help robotics teams, STEM clubs, schools, and community organizations plan logistics, reach students, and teach in their own communities.
Join us