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About FIRST
FIRST is a program "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology."
Team 375 likes to decipher the acronym as "Fun, Innovation, Reality, Safety, Team-Work," because it was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen "to transform our culture by creating a world where science and technology are celebrated and where young people dream of becoming science and technology leaders." This program succeeds in its mission because it creates a safe environment for groups of engineers in training to work together with experienced mentors on real-world projects. Each year, FIRST comes up with upbeat game challenges that the participants of the program have to solve using their skill-sets in critical thinking, teamwork, communication, engineering, and more.
While FIRST is a competition, it is all about collective success. This program promotes charity, the concept of “others before self”, and most importantly – cooperation. This sport is all about Gracious Professionalism – the ability to exhibit savoir-faire even under a ticking timer counting down the seconds to the end of a competitive match. It is about showing the world that engineering is not at all impersonal, and is not just a business. FIRST proves that technology is about bringing people together, about the human minds behind the invention process.
It is truly a colorful, exciting program.
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FIRST created four sub-programs dealing with different age groups. Among those sub-divisions is the FIRST Robotics Competition for high school students. In FRC, students work on large five-foot-tall robots, following the guidelines of challenges FIRST provides annually.
Second program is called the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC). It is also dedicated to high school age groups and allows young engineers in training to work on smaller robots, using less resources in comparison to FRC Teams. This program facilitates learning engineering and business skills because it does not require large-scale machines, but rather lets high schoolers experience what it is like to innovate without having to use extensive facilities.
FLL is deciphered as the FIRST LEGO League and was created for middle-school age groups. It introduces the concepts of innovation and engineering into the lives of young people by challenging them to construct LEGO machines to complete different obstacle courses or game challenges. The FLL games are played on miniature maps spread across a table.
The final program included in FIRST is the Junior FIRST LEGO League which challenges even younger age groups to participate in the competitions organized by FLL , constructing LEGO machines.
Would you like to know the specifics? Are you interested in joining the above programs? Are you a volunteer? A mentor? A future participant? Click on the images to the right, corresponding with respective program titles to get re-directed to the official FIRST website.
