business backgrounder | education & workforce
and learning to work side-by-side with teammates on intense, real-world challenges, just as you’d do in a
workplace. Last year’s challenge, “Recycling Rush,” tasked teams with building a bot capable of stacking and
moving recycling containers and garbage cans.
Each January, FIRST Robotics teams across the globe receive the same challenge at the same moment (this
year’s reveal takes place Saturday, Jan. 9, at 7 a.m. Pacific Time), and dive into the challenge — they only have
6.5 weeks to work, so hustle is key. Tasks get divided up across the team, with some students working on
building and programming the robot, while others, like Marissa, get busy managing a complicated, fast-moving
project from start to finish, coordinating meetings, scouting other teams’ projects, managing the team’s budget,
and keeping pace with industry mentors.
During the build season, teams seek out strategic, competency-based alliances with other local teams,
and compete together in groups of three. “So you’re not trying to destroy another team’s robot; you’re very
respectful,” says McCallum. “The team you’re
competing against in round one may be a
team you’re collaborating with later in the
competition.”
The deadline pressure of the FIRST competition “season” delivers real-world learning value,
says Aaron Schmitz, a mechanical engineer with
Microsoft and a FIRST program alumnus. “I
learned a lot about engineering from the competitions, but I learned even more about personal
interactions, keeping track of deadlines, and program management skills that are really important
in any corporate engineering job, and in nonengineering fields, too.”
career competency
FIRST Robotics programs don’t set out to steer
students toward STEM careers, but that’s often
The ice of the ShoWare Center in Kent normally sees games by professional hockey players,
the outcome. Of FIRST participants, 59 percent
but it’s also host to fierce LEGO robotics championships.
report more interest in STEM careers as a result
of the program; 78 percent report more interest in engineering. Among females,
two-thirds report more interest in STEM careers, 81 percent are more interested
To attend one of FIRST’s 150 Washington
in engineering, and 31 are more interested in math, according to FIRST.
competitions, which are free and open to
Before FIRST, Birmingham had no real interest in engineering. “But over the
the public, visit firstwa.org. To learn more
course of high school, I realized that I enjoyed physics and math classes,” she
about workforce development or volunteer
says. “It was fun to see the pulley systems and mechanical applications, and it’s
opportunities, contact FIRST Washington at
one of the reasons I went into engineering in college.”
[email protected].
For students who come to FIRST with an interest in STEM, like Schmitz, the
program helps narrow the scope of potential career choices. After completing AP
courses and receiving a community college AA degree in high school, Schmitz
entered the University of Minnesota with the first three years of college complete.
This meant he had to dive into senior-level classes immediately, forgoing the exploratory, low-stakes freshman
and sophomore courses. “Essentially, by my junior year of high school, I had to be focused and pick a direction.
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