What is FIRST?

FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, is the organization that makes all this possible for us and thousands of other robotics teams. FIRST hosts 4 different robotics programs (ours being the FIRST Robotics Competition) that all have young people design and build robots to complete various tasks.

Robotics Programs

In order to reach out to a wide variety of people, FIRST has 4 main robotics programs, each targeted towards a different age group. The FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) is for High Schoolers ages 14-18, the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is for students grades 7-12, the FIRST Lego League (FLL) is for students grades 4-8, and the Junior FIRST Lego League is for kids grades K-3.

Mission

“Our mission is to inspire young people to be science and technology leaders, by engaging them in exciting mentor-based programs that build science, engineering and technology skills, that inspire innovation, and that foster well-rounded life capabilities including self-confidence, communication, and leadership.” ` – FIRST Website

Values

FIRST encourages high quality work and respect of others in your community. FIRST calls this Gracious Professionalism. FIRST encourages competition and trying your hardest, but what it supports more than that is having respect and empathy for fellow teammates and competitors. FIRST encourages cooperation, knowing that better things are made through learning from your competitors and teammates than through defeating them.