About FIRST

Why they are Number One

Is it really that hard to get teens to do stuff?

The sights inside Mr. Berend's metal shop would say that no, motivating teenagers isn't an impossibility. There will be maybe ten or fifteen of them at a time, arguing over blueprints and doing math, sculpting robot parts with digital materials on one of the room's computers, or filing them out of steel in the metal shop around the back, or prototyping a new design out of cardboard and duct tape, or programming motion commands, or drafting T-shirt designs, in general contributing to the day's business. Here they've worked through those precious Saturday mornings and six weeks of dinners, between homework and studying for tests, even the finals late last January. They've weathered the worst of California's winter (and suffered the temptation of its best), slaving over One. Huge. Project.

Any parent who wonders why their kid won't pick up his room might be hypnotized by this display of diligence. The highest achievable award for building this robot is a trophy, but are bragging rights really worth those thousand man-hours of work?

Apparently so. The organization responsible for all of this metal shop toil is FIRST, For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology, a non-profit organization headed by Dean Kamen, the inventor of the Segway. FIRST's the name, and both teamwork and science collectively are the game; FIRST believes that collaboration, both between team members and competing teams, goes hand in hand with science itself.

What the above team is currently laboring over, the One. Huge. Project, is an entrant in the FIRST Robotics Competition. The FRC is FIRST's glitziest event, where teams from all over the nation pit their robots against each other in a creative game. The objectives and rules are released on the first (pun) Saturday after New Years, from when all teams are given six weeks to design and build a robot to compete. This is no easy or simple task, as robots not only require an understanding of advanced mathematics but tens of thousands of dollars in funding. FIRST provides a kit of parts and what money they can spare, but it's the team's responsibility to pay for what they've dreamed up on paper.

It's in the fires of meeting FIRST's high expectations that a team must either pull together or fail; FIRST's objective is for students to learn to manage their resources, and succeed through their innovative use knowledge and technology.

Just building a robot is the most time consuming, expensive, and stressful part, the most difficult (yet often the most enjoyable) part of the entire season. Then it must be tested. It’s only after a team’s robot has braved the trials set before it – balls, barriers, bumpers, robots, regolith, autonomous periods, moving, stopping, scoring, defending, just staying together sometimes, not to mention fighting nerves as one manually controls his robot under the serenade of a thousand other teams cheering – and after thoroughly examining other teams’ robots and attending their swap shops that the competition is over.

Victory or not, one thing is constant: Camaraderie. Teams compete as both enemies and allies, but the ultimate goal is to attain knowledge through experience. It’s in this pursuit that our young engineers are united. Whether the stands are packed with friends or competition, it’s beautiful to know that they’re all like-minded souls.

So teenagers aren’t immovable after all. Offer the right ones sponsorship money, friends, mentors, technology, and some free food from time to time, and there’s no marking the end of their potential. On these horizons, anyways.