Why Support Children's Interests In Robotics?
Benefits Of Robotics Education

   In 2022, FIRST Robotics launched their "More Than" campaign.  
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"As a global robotics community preparing young people for the future, we at FIRST® want every kid to recognize their worth, abilities and love who they are. Together with our sponsors, we know the power STEM education has in inspiring the innovative spirit and self-esteem our kids need to tackle the world's greatest challenges. A very special thanks to the following supporters for helping us encourage today's youth to be More Than."
     "Every year, we would build (in the FIRST Robotics Competition) what amounted to a $300,000 machine just based on the hours that go into it, and that's at a simple $10 per hour rate.  How many other after school activities do our kids do today where they walk away after one year with a $300,000 opportunity that they've built?" -  Mark McCombs, TEDx Talks Jacksonville, 2015
  • Fostering STEM-focused skills of Creativity, Collaboration, Communication, Critical Thinking:
    • Opportunities for comprehensive engagement:
      • Examining and understanding design systems
      • Fostering systems-thinking approach to problem-solving
    • Encouraging processes of problem-solving:  Curiosity, designing, making, connecting, applying, extending, revisiting
    • Opportunities for meeting and working with diverse people, academically and socially, with different view-points and perspectives
  • Competition aspect of FIRST and VEX Robotics programs enhances learning
  • Appeal to diverse demographics and age groups
  • Providing experiences of demonstrating grit and perseverance in preparation for overcoming future challenges and making wise decisions in life outside robotics
    • Students take ownership of their robots
      • Building sense of accomplishment
      • Building confidence
  • Practicing and refining fine motor skills
  • Instills and fuels passion for learning new skills and knowledge
  • Instills motivation to succeed at academics in pursuit of long-term career goals.

Articles:
Meet the high school sport that builds robots and the next generation of engineers. (NPR, Oct. 7, 2023)
Why STEM and Robotics Education

Below is a post by Katie_UPS at chiefdelphi.com, a popular forum for participants of the FIRST Robotics Competition.  Katie comments about the benefit of practicing skills in math and writing to build transferrable skills in communication and logical reasoning.  Similarly, students on the robotics team may not necessarily pursue career pathways in engineering, computer science, and robotics.  While on the team however, these students learn, practice, and master the 21st-century skills for the workplace; for attaining higher post-secondary success.

Stories of Benefits of FIRST Robotics Program
     Read the full testimonial by Nithusan Ranjanathan (Captain of 2015 Pink Titans) on the impact of the FIRST Robotics program on his career pathway:
  • "... it helped me to develop valuable team work skills by the way that we must co-operate as a team."
  • "... time management ... is just one of the valuable lessons that our members learned apart from the vast knowledge of the mechanical and electrical aspects."
  • "... I finally got to make connections from what we learned (in school) to the real world.  This in turn helped me to pick an appropriate career path."
  • "... it is a truly expectional experience which every student should indulge in."

Statistics of Impact of FIRST Robotics Programs

  The infographic below is a summary of the impact of the FIRST program from the FIRST Longitudinal Studies (FIRSTinspires.org, Dec. 2017):  
 The infographic below is a summary of the impact of the FIRST program from nine FIRST STEM Equity Community Innovation Grants in 2017.  (FIRSTInspires.org, 2017)
Source:  FIRST Impact Infographic (FIRSTInspires.org, Jan. 2017)
Source:   FIRSTRoboticsCanada.org  (2015)