What is FIRST?
- FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology) was founded to inspire young people’s interest and participation in science and technology
- It is a versatile program that incorporates the skill sets of Science, Technology, Engineering & Math into competition style setting
- It’s More Than Robots and motivates young people to pursue education and career opportunities in STEM, while building self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills
- FIRST is divided into 4 sub-levels of competition
- FLL Jr (Grades K-3)
- FLL (Grades 4-8)
- FTC (Grades 7-12)
FLL Jr (Grades K-3) is all about creativity. It’s an introduction to STEM and helps kids get excited about problem-solving. The goal is to solve a real-world issue using research and their imaginations. The students build LEGO models and create posters to show what they’ve learned throughout the season.
FLL (Grades 4-8) is a lot about problem solving. At the beginning of the season, the students will have to research a real-world problem that is related to that season’s theme.This years theme is City Shaper. From their research, they will develop a solution to their problem and create a presentation to show what they’ve discovered. The second aspect of FLL is the robot game. The robots are built completely out of LEGO parts and programmed with Mindstorms block programming. The competition takes place on a table that has a field “mat” on it. On the field, there are multiple LEGO structures that are part of “missions”. There are about 15 missions on the field, and the task is to build and program a robot that will successfully complete all of them. It’s challenging, but it’s a whole lot of fun!
FTC (Grades 7-12) is the second highest level of FIRST Robotics, and it’s intense! The robot portion of FTC is a huge step up from FLL, as students will be working with real metal parts and tools to build robots as heavy as 40 lbs!
The robot competition is also more extreme. It is played on a 12 by 12 foot field (on the floor) with 1 foot walls on each side. Each game involves 4 robots divided into a red alliance and a blue alliance. The game rules and materials change each year, but the main goal is always to be the winning alliance with the most points. The software students use Java programming just like real professionals!
The other side of FTC is the business portion. Students will learn how to create the engineering notebook The engineering notebook is a documentation of the team’s robot design and records the time spent doing research, outreach, team meetings, and plans for growth. Members of the business team will organize and attend the team’s outreach events, come up with fundraising ideas, and do all sorts of interesting things like graphic design, website development, and making connections with real-world professionals.