General

FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology". FIRST Robotics is made up five different programs. FIRST Place is made up of robotics classes, workshops, and camps for all ages. Junior FIRST Lego League is the elementary level program. At this level, they learn to engineer using Legos and present their ideas. In middle school, students move into FIRST Lego League. Students in FIRST Lego League compete with robots they build using Lego Mindstorms kits. There are two different levels for high school students. FIRST Tech Challenge is a cheaper option where students build smaller robots. FIRST Tech Challenge is often called the junior varsity version of FIRST Robotics Competition. FIRST Robotics Competition is the most expensive program. In the FIRST Robotics Competition, students get a total of six weeks to build a robot, typically larger than the average high schooler, from a kit of parts and other materials their team buys.

History

FIRST Robotics is the brainchild of inventor Dean Kamen. FIRST was started in 1992 in a high school gymnasium in New Hampshire with a huge vision. The vision of FIRST was to encourage children and teens to dream of becoming "science and technology heroes". Since 1992, the program has grown from 28 teams to over 3,000 teams in the FIRST Robotics Competition (aka FRC). In 1998, FIRST Lego League went through it's pilot phase. Since the FIRST Lego League, the middle school level, has grown exponentially. Jr. FIRST Lego League, the elementary level, completed its pilot year in 2004. By 2006, there was demand for another high school level, so FIRST Tech Challenge (FIRST Vex Challenge at the time) went through it's pilot season that year. Since then the FIRST Tech Challenge has gone on to be known as the junior varsity level of the FIRST Robotics Competition.

Gracious Professionalism

Gracious professionalism is a term coined by Woodie Flowers. The idea behind gracious professionalism is pretty much a new level of sportsmanship. In the spirit of gracious professionalism, all the teams want to compete hard and ultimately win, but they also want each team to achieve as much as they can, too. Gracious professionalism is more than just a thought throughout the season. Teams in need know that they can ask anything of another team and that other team, in the spirit of gracious professionalism, will help them out. At competition, when a robot has problems, other teams can always be found offering up help to fix the issue. No one forces teams to congradulate other teams, but one match after another, you can find teams telling each other how well they did dispite how the score turned out. While cheering for alliances is loud and obvious, there is no booing or cheering for the failure of the other alliance. Teams learn through gracious professionalism to appriciate and utilize the talents of the teams around them.