FIRST is the organization that makes everything we do possible. FIRST, which stands for For Inspiration and Recognition of Technology, sponsors a number of robotics competitions each year, including the FIRST Robotics Competition. Each competition is based on the same idea: give students a challenging problem and a short period of time to work with and let them collaborate with their fellow students and mentors to build a robot and take that robot to compete against other teams from around the world. Although each team builds a robot, it is about so much more than robotics. During the build season (the 6-week period of time alloted for each team to build their robot), the competition, and the off season (the rest of the year), students learn not only about building robots but about valuable engineering and prototyping concepts, working with teams, and doing things they thought were impossible 6 weeks ago. No student walks away from their first build season without a new ability to collaborate under pressure and a budding passion for engineering.
FIRST online registration: https://my.usfirst.org/stims/site.lasso (click on New Student User, student and parent will need to create accounts to grant permission). This permission is needed every year.
The FIRST® Robotics Competition is a high-school robotics competition that inspires students to pursue engineering and teaches them about the rewards and challenges of working together under pressure.
