What is FIRST?
FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) provides life-changing robotics programs that give young people the skills, confidence, and resilience to build a better world.
“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.”
About FIRST
FIRST was founded in 1989, and since then participation in FIRST has exploded. More than 4 million young people have taken part, and FIRST programs now run in more than 100 countries. In addition to the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) for high school students, FIRST runs FIRST LEGO League (FLL) and the FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC), which introduce students from kindergarten through high school to robotics. Many of these students go on to participate in FRC, and quite often their future careers are influenced by this.
Check out www.firstinspires.org for more information and a list of events happening in your area!
Gracious Professionalism & Coopertition
FIRST’s Core Values are Discovery, Innovation, Impact, Inclusion, Teamwork, and Fun. Underlying them are two philosophies: Gracious Professionalism® and Coopertition®. As the late Dr. Woodie Flowers, distinguished advisor to FIRST, put it, Gracious Professionalism is where people “learn and compete like crazy, but treat one another with respect and kindness in the process.”
Similarly, Coopertition means teams help and cooperate with each other, even as they compete. These values are key reasons why the unsportsmanlike behavior seen in many other sporting events is not exhibited at FIRST events.
FIRST Programs
Grades K-8 (Ages 5-16)
FIRST LEGO League (FLL)
FIRST® LEGO® League introduces students to STEM through fun, hands-on learning with LEGO® technology. Teams program robots to complete autonomous missions in timed matches and explore a real-world theme through an innovation project, building habits of learning, confidence, and teamwork skills along the way.
Through the 2027-2028 season, FLL runs two editions side by side: the Founders Edition, with its Explore and Challenge divisions, and the new Future Edition, which starts students as young as kindergarten.
Ages 6-10
Ages 9-16 (varies by country)
Grades 7-12 (Ages 12-18)
FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC)
FTC is the link between FLL and FRC. Small teams of students, with the help of mentors, design, build, test, and program robots to compete in a new game released every September. These robots are bigger and more sophisticated than LEGO robots, and must perform game tasks both autonomously and under driver control.
Grades 9-12 (Ages 14-18)
FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC)
FRC is FIRST’s uppermost division. Starting with a Kit of Parts revealed at the January kickoff, high school students have just a few short weeks to design, program, and build industrial-sized robots, often weighing over 100 pounds, that are both human operated and autonomously controlled. FRC teams are usually quite large, so in addition to learning technical skills, students can learn how to lead a team. Also, requiring a higher budget than FTC, FRC gives students the opportunity to learn fundraising skills and present to corporations to potentially gain sponsors.
