What is FIRST

FIRST: For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology

FIRST is a program which inspires young people to explore STEM. Through FIRST, students learn about Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics and critical thinking skills. Besides engineering and technology, FIRST programs also encourage public speaking, finance, and problem solving.

Dean Kamen founded FIRST in 1992 with the help of Woodie Flowers. In the beginning FIRST had a simple objective, but it has evolved into a very complex and strategic game. Besides our program, FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC), FIRST has 3 other divisions: FIRST Lego League, Jr. (FLL Jr.), FIRST Lego League (FLL), and FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC). Each of these programs help children and young adults explore engineering, critical thinking, and team work. FLL Jr. is for grades K through 4, FLL 4-8, FTC 7-12, and FRC 9-12.

Each of these competitions gets a new, unique game each year, and then has the objective of building a robot which is able to complete tasks to score points. In FRC, we are given our new game at the start of January and begin competitions in March. To learn about this year's game you can go here. FRC has other optional objectives each season as well, such as writing essays, giving presentations, and creating videos to enter for awards.

FIRST encourages the spread of STEM to younger generations to inspire them to pursue a path in one of the related fields. It strives to include minorities, such as women and lower-income households, who might not otherwise be exposed to opportunities such as this. We are proud to be a FIRST team and share these values and goals.