For starters, FIRST is an acronym "For Inspiration and Recognition in Science and Technology". All too often, it is only student-athletes that are given recognition in school. Everyone knows the name of the star quarterback, but "that kid who's so good at physics" gets no recognition whatsoever from his fellow students, and relatively little from the administration. FIRST founders Dean Kaman and Woodie Flowers saw the faulty logic in this imbalance. After all, very few students will grow up to be like Michael Jordan; however, many students could well go on to be engineers at Ford Motor Company. These two extraordinary men wanted to correct this imbalance and get more students involved in science and technology. With an eye toward convincing students that science is not all dry, boring textbooks, Dean and Woodie started the FIRST Robotics Competition.
The FIRST competition, based in part on a class the two were already conducting at MIT, started in 1992. During the first week of January, FIRST teams gather at the Kickoff to learn what this year's "game" will be. The teams then have six weeks to design, build (and redesign and rebuild) a robot that will win the game. Common ways to score points in past competitions have been such tasks as putting balls into 6 foot high goals and dragging those same 200 pound goals down a 50 foot field. While this may sound simple, keep in mind that this all must be accomplished in under two minutes.
Each team competes in 2 regionals and the National event. Dean and Woodie wanted to borrow the best from sports and use it to make science and technology much more exciting, and they have succeeded. Hundreds of enthralling matches played between robots from all across the nation. Giant crowds cheer for all the bots on the field. Teams throw "swag" into the crowd; you can come away from a competition with water bottles, rub on tattoos, face paint, buttons, key chains, and just about anything else that you could imagine.
There is still a difference between FIRST and a sports match, however. As Woodie once said "At a sports game, half the crowd is cheering for one team to win and half is cheering for the other team to win; here, everyone is cheering for a job well done." There is a great feeling of community at a FIRST regional or national competition.
All in all, FIRST is the science and technology equivalent of football - but it is also much more. This is shown in the fact that the FIRST competition has grown from 28 teams in 1992 to 20,000 students on over 1000 teams that participate nationwide today. FIRST has incredible support in the business world, with many companies putting thousands of dollars toward sponsoring teams. FIRST pushes science and technology beyond the classroom, giving students that feeling of closeness gained from being part of a struggle to reach the same goal. With so much more involved than just "winning the game", FIRST offers something for everyone.