IT'S TIME TO GO FULL SPEED AHEAD.
Transportation drives us forward – impacting economies, bridging cultures, and making us all more globally interconnected.
SM
It’s way more than building robots. FIRST® Tech Challenge teams are challenged to design, build, program and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge using an alliance format. Guided by adult coaches and mentors, students develop STEM skills and practice engineering principles, while realizing the value of hard work, innovation, and working as a team.
Teams design and build robots, raise funds, design and market their team brand, document their team's journal in an engineering notebook and do community outreach to earn specific awards.
About FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) was founded in 1989 to inspire young people's interest and participation in science and technology. Based in Manchester, NH, the 501(c)(3) not-for-profit public charity designs accessible, innovative programs that motivate young people to pursue education and career opportunities in science, technology, engineering, and math, while building self-confidence, knowledge, and life skills.
The positive impact on FIRST® Tech Challenge participants is gratifying and well documented.
FIRST ALUMNI ARE
2.6x
more likely to enroll in an
ENGINEERING
course their freshman year
(than a matched comparison group of students)
OVER
75%
of FIRST Alumni are in a
Stem Field As a Student or
Professional
GAINS IN WORKFORCE SKILLS
95% of students reported gains in TIME MANAGEMENT
98% of students reported gains in problem solving
The Game
About FTC & FIRST
Impact
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Dark Matter 14374 is a community-based FIRST Tech Challenge team of high schoolers located in St. Tammany Parish which is in Southeast Louisiana. We are a competitive team within FIRST - the founding organization of FTC that advocates for STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) and promotes Gracious Professionalism.
"FIRST® is more than robots. The robots are a vehicle for students to learn import life skills. Kids often come in not knowing what to expect – of the program nor of themselves. They leave, even after the first season, with a vision, with confidence, and with a sense that they can create their own future." – Dean Kamen, FIRST® Founder
