Center for Mathematics and Science Education

The FIRST Tech Challenge is an amazing competition for students ready to take on high-school-level robotics. Students experience the power, excitement, and fun of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) with hands-on, minds-on activities – all with robots!

Teams of middle- and high-school students design, build, and program robots with both autonomous and driver-controlled modes. They take these robots to local and regional tournaments, competing as Alliances against other teams. The tournaments feature the same excitement and pressure experienced in more traditional high-school athletics. Teams that win at the Mississippi Championship level advance to the annual World Championship. FIRST Tech Challenge teams are adult-led and student-driven, allowing each student on a team to actively participate and engage in the engineering process. Students work with a re-usable robotics kit to design, build, and program robots. FIRST Tech Challenge empowers students while building confidence, critical decision-making, leadership, and teamwork. FIRST Tech Challenge participants are introduced to the engineering process and create and maintain an Engineering Notebook. They develop hands-on programming, rapid-prototyping experience, and learn the value of problem-solving, organizational, and team-building skills. FIRST Tech Challenge also creates powerful relationships between the young people who compete and the volunteers and mentors who participate. FIRST Tech Challenge students are eligible for more than $80 million college scholarships nationwide. Teams can be school-based, homeschool-based, part of an afterschool program, or organized by community groups such as 4-H, the Girl Scouts, and the Boys & Girls Clubs of America. FTC kits can also be used in the classroom as a great learning tool.