He started with one elementary classroom and a box of Lego robots
Max Goetz founded Robotics For All as a Gunn High School student. It now teaches free STEM classes online and in person.
Most high school research projects end with a poster board. Max Goetz’s ended with a nonprofit.
Goetz started Robotics For All in April 2017 while a student at Gunn High School in Palo Alto, California. The idea began as a research project in the school’s Advanced Authentic Research program, built around a simple question: why do some kids get robotics and others never see it? In a March 2018 district profile, the program’s goal was stated plainly: to educate students from disadvantaged communities in robotics and STEM.
His first classroom was Mariano Castro Elementary School in Mountain View. The first class ran in November 2017, according to the organization’s history. The model was an after-school course, typically one or two sessions a week for about eight weeks, covering tools like Scratch, Python and TinkerCAD.
Goetz has described the gap that pushed him to start. “I found a startling hole in afterschool STEM programs at underserved schools,” he said in a profile published by Georgetown University’s entrepreneurship program, where he later studied. Robotics For All earned 501(c)(3) status in October 2018.
What it looks like now
The pandemic changed the plan, and for the better. Robotics For All launched online classes in July 2020 and grew into a national program. In August 2021 it opened in-person chapters in Chandler, Arizona; New York City; Temecula, California; and Tallahassee, Florida. In November 2022 it began Curriculum Partnerships, which hand its lessons and kits to other organizations.
Its website now reports more than 200 active volunteers, more than 3,500 students taught and 22 courses. It also runs high school chapters, where teen volunteers lead hands-on sessions in local schools and clubs. The organization describes itself as founded by and primarily led by high schoolers and young adults.
Students from low-income families take classes free. In a Kars4Kids grantee profile, Goetz said the point is “to provide equitable educational opportunities to students of every socioeconomic status.”
A note for searchers: a separate group called Robotics for All operates in Bellevue, Washington. It is unrelated.
To volunteer or ask about a partnership, the organization lists info@roboticsforall.net.
