STEM Programs for Students: Exploring FIRST
FIRST is a global robotics community who prepares students for the future through its STEM programs for students. The goals of FIRST are to inspire young people to explore the diverse STEM field and become future technology and science leaders and innovators. FIRST engages students from Pre-K to 12 in mentor-based research and robotics programs that help them become excellent leaders and well-rounded individuals in the future!
In this blog post, we will discuss the benefits of FIRST as well as its welcoming community displayed through the FIRST programs.
The FIRST Community
FIRST is a large, inclusive community where students, parents, educators, and volunteers can inspire one another and explore more about STEM. Anyone from Pre-K to elders can be a part of the FIRST community whether it be a family member or an active participant.
Students
Students from Pre-K to 12 have the opportunity to participate in FIRST’s STEM programs. Throughout the season on the specific program, teams work on their robot and presentation to the judges, reflecting Gracious Professionalism–encouraging hard work and respecting individuals of the community–and the FIRST core values–discovery, innovation, impact, inclusion, teamwork, and fun. Students can participate in multiple programs at the same time as a scholar, mentor, and volunteer!
Mentors and Coaches
FIRST welcomes anyone to be a mentor and/or coach! Students, parents, educators, or adults who want to help out FIRST are welcome to be a part of the FIRST community! To ensure safety, FIRST requires a background check for adults and a youth protection contract to be signed to ensure the safety of their community members, and the process is simple and easy!
Throughout the program’s season, mentors and coaches would be helping the students through the process of innovating a robot and creating a stellar presentation. Mentors and coaches do not need to have a background in STEM because FIRST makes it easy for anyone to learn and become an expert!
Volunteers
Volunteers of FIRST can be anyone! Students, parents, educators, or other adults are all welcome to volunteer, although students must at least be in middle school. FIRST ensures the safety of everyone in the community by running background checks for those 18 and older as well as a youth protection form. Volunteers can help from 1 hour to multiple years!
Benefits of FIRST
Participating in FIRST provides students with many benefits that can improve one’s skills and prepare them for the future. FIRST offers many programs and opportunities that prepare one for their dream job in the future.
Gain Important Skills
Through FIRST’s programs and opportunities, many skills can be gained by students, parents, educators, and volunteers. With FIRST, everyone will learn and laugh a bit more. Not only does FIRST help you explore the different topics of STEM such as computer programming and robotics, but it also teaches people how to improve on their public speaking skill and teamwork.
At FIRST, teamwork and self-confidence is encouraged between the students, mentors and coaches, and volunteers. The FIRST community is very connected to STEM through its programs and competitions, yet the holistic experience is the star. Although it may seem as though STEM skills are the only things that can be gained from the STEM program, lots of skills for the future are learned as well whether someone wants to pursue law, business, arts, medicine, and more!
Shine on College Applications
Students can put their experience and awards gained from FIRST on their college applications. FIRST offers many awards at their competitions and the experience of participating in FIRST is enough to show your commitment to STEM and use it to help display your skills. On college applications, students can write about their experience learning, exploring, mentoring, and having the time of their lives with FIRST.
In addition to this, many colleges and universities offer scholarships for those who participated in FIRST. There are many FIRST scholarship opportunities for majors in STEM and many students can be chosen to have the opportunity to be awarded with the scholarship!
Offers Amazing Opportunities
FIRST offers amazing STEM opportunities as colleges, universities, and businesses are looking for potential newcomers. At the FIRST Championships, there is always a large area where booths are set up by schools, universities, and businesses as they are searching for amazing talent within the FIRST community. Businesses and schools like Disney Imagineering, MIT, DoD STEM, and more are all at FIRST Championships welcoming and talking to members of the FIRST community one-on-one.
Having the opportunity to talk to multiple organizations raises the number of internships and jobs that FIRST members can apply for. FIRST offers opportunities to all members of the FIRST programs! Not only students are offered such amazing opportunities because adults are offered many pathways they can follow with those companies as well!
FIRST Programs
There are a total of 3 STEM programs for students in FIRST. Each of these programs are designed to easily allow the students to transition from one program to another as they age up. All of these programs are so much fun and the overlap of some age requirements allow students to participate in multiple programs at once. Not only can students participate as a scholar who is taught by a mentor, but students have the opportunity to become a mentor!
First Lego League
The First Lego League program (FLL) consists of 3 divisions: First Lego League Discover, First Lego League Explore, and First Lego League Challenge.
First Lego League Discover is designed for students from Pre-K through 1st grade. In this division, students are given an exciting introduction to STEM. They have the opportunity to experiment in hands-on activities while using LEGO® DUPLO® bricks.
First Lego League Explore is designed for students from 2nd through 4th grade. In this division, students focus more on the fundamentals of engineering as they utilize their developing critical-thinking skills to solve real-world problems using LEGO bricks. Students have to opportunity to program and build a LEGO® Education SPIKETM Essential or WeDo 2.0
First Lego League Challenge is designed for students from 4th through 8th grade and the age limit varies depending on the country. In this division, students program a LEGO or Spike robot and research and present a solution to a real-world issue to a panel of judges at the fun competition!
First Tech Challenge
First Tech Challenge (FTC) is a program designed for students in grades 7 to 12. Teams are challenged to build a robot, program the robot built using Java-based code, and market their team brand while doing community outreach. Teams prepare throughout the season to compete head-to-head in an alliance based format while learning the FIRST core values and developing their STEM and outreach skills.
First Robotics Competition
First Robotics Competition (FRC) is a program designed for students in grades 9 to 12 where teams build and program an industrial-sized robot using a Python-based program and do community outreach. Throughout the limited time, resources, and strict rules during the season, students prepare to compete at a difficult field game in alliance with other teams. Students get as close to real-world engineering as they can through FRC and teamwork is essential during such a short amount of time given to prepare.
Exploring FIRST
FIRST offers a diverse number of programs which allows students, parents, adults, and volunteers of all backgrounds to be a part of the fun, inclusive community set by FIRST. FIRST is an amazing, once in a lifetime opportunity for students to participate in as they learn skills in and out of the STEM field. Students are prepared for the future with FIRST and its worldwide STEM program allows a wide range of internships, job opportunities, and scholarships to be offered to talented students!
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