What is FIRST®

FIRST Robotics is a great opportunity for our ten home schools to come together as a team to construct a robot.  Multiple trade shops and mentors(Teachers, College Professors, College students and Professionals) work together to complete a project, meet deadlines and work together. The Mentors help us coordinate our efforts as a single cohesive unit in a real-world project with deadlines, design issues and problem solving situations for a completed project. While working as a group of people to make the best product available. Mentors help guide us to reach our full potential in the FIRST Robotics event. We have community support from J.C.Penney and The Heinz foundation as our sponsors in the FIRST Robotics Event. With this support in the community we feel obliged to do our absolute best in the FIRST Robotics Event. FIRST Robotics also has many colleges and universities, professional associations, and corporations that offer college scholarships to high school students on FIRST teams, allowing students to be able to use what they learned in FIRST apply their knowledge to college or a job. See more about scholarships here at http://www.usfirst.org/aboutus/scholarships. FIRST Robotics has many different sections in which many different challenges and ages groups compete. They are as followed: 

Overall Reach - All Programs Combined (projected for the 2012/13 season) 

·         303,000+ students

·         29,200+ teams

·         25,000+ robots

·         56,500+ Mentors/adult supporters

·         64,000+ other Volunteers (e.g. events Volunteers, Operational and Affiliate Partners)

See breakdowns by individual program below (projections for 2012/13 season). 

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2013 FIRST Robotics Competition

·         2,548 teams

·         50,960 high-school students (Grades 9-12)

·         58 Regional Events; 1 State Championship; 1 Region Championship; 17 District Competitions

·         FIRST Robotics Competition Championship at the FIRST Championship in St. Louis, MO, April 24-27, 2013

·         Robots are built in 6 weeks from a common kit of parts provided by FIRST, and typically weigh up to 150 lbs.

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2012/13 FIRST Tech Challenge 

·         2,500 teams

·         25,000 high-school students (Grades 7-12)

·         100+ Qualifying and Championship Tournaments

·         FIRST Tech Challenge World Championship at the FIRST Championship in St. Louis, MO,April 24-27, 2013

·         Robots are built using a re-usable, modular robotics platform 

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2012/13 FIRST LEGO League

·         20,500 teams

·         205,000 children (Grades 4-8)

·         From 60+ countries

·         814 Qualifying Tournaments; 124+ Championship Tournaments

·         FIRST LEGO League World Festival at the FIRST Championship in St. Louis, MO, April 24-27, 2013

·         Autonomous robots are built using LEGO MINDSTORMS technologies 

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2012/13 Junior FIRST LEGO League

·         3,700 teams

·         22,200 kids, ages 6 to 9 (Grades K-3)

·         100+ Jr.FLL Expos

·         Participants design and construct a model using LEGO bricks and moving parts and present their research journey on a poster

In all FIRST robotics is a great opportunity for students to have fun and enjoy working with friends along with other teams to compete with each other in a great event that builds sportsmanship, teamwork, and real life situation.