Digital Media Strategy
Digital Media Strategy
The lights dimmed. The crowds roared. Alliances teamed up to face off. Strategies were cultivated after weeks of research, and hundreds of kids across the state of Indiana are ready for the competition to begin.
However, this isn’t your typical sports game, though students crowd the stands around what—on a normal day—would be a basketball court. They’re wearing team jerseys and holding up signs. They’re cheering and waving pom poms.
But instead of a typical sports game, a carpet was rolled out, machinery brought in, and teams were ready for the weekend they had waited for all year.
Their robotics competition.
“It’s the ultimate sport of the mind,” says Dean Kamen, founder of FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology), a K-12 robotics program that has taken the world by storm over the past 30 years.
FIRST is an international program dedicated to inspiring young people by sparking an interest for and passion in science, technology, engineering, and math. In the high school division, teams build industrial-size robots that compete on a field roughly the size of a basketball court. On game day, they are paired in randomized alliances for qualifying matches, where they demonstrate their skills at completing challenges based on that season’s theme. After the qualifying tournaments, the top teams select other teams to compete with them in the elimination matches.
But FIRST isn’t your typical robotics program. FIRST prides itself on being More Than Robots. Teams exemplify this by cultivating a culture of compassion and community service alongside the fierce competition where they all bring their best.
Mentorship is a large priority within the FIRST community. But not just within teams—among teams. Veteran teams often help rookie teams get their bearings in this fast-paced program, and sometimes even share parts and build spaces throughout the season.
This is due in large part to what FIRST calls its “Core Values.” One of the most important is a term coined by the late Dr. Woodie Flowers, and that is Cooperition. A hybrid of cooperate and competition, Coopertition is competing fiercely while also ensuring your competition has all the resources they need to bring their A-game as well.
In Indiana, an infamous time Coopertition was displayed was in a state finals match. This was the round that would determine which alliance would advance to the World Championship, a very prestigious and selective event. In a best two out of three match, the alliances were tied 1-1. However, at the end of the second match, one alliance’s robot was damaged. They used their time-out to try to fix it; however, they ran out of time. To ensure a fair match, the other alliance gave up their time-out to allow their opponents to have ample time to fix their machine.
With the extra time to fix their robot, the alliance ended up winning, and the alliance that donated their time-out lost.
Yet this is celebrated. If you were to go up to a volunteer who was involved in FIRST at this time, they would be able to tell you every detail. It’s a moment that has gone down in FIRST Indiana history as a wonderful display of Core Values.
FIRST offers a community of empowerment to students who may not have previously received support. It allows them to build the skills and passions they need to work and thrive in our ever-changing, fast-paced workforce.
FIRST students build problem-solving skills through hands-on work on their robots, which are typically fabricated entirely by students, with little to no adult mentor involvement. Students dedicate hours upon hours to their daily team meetings, even showing up on the weekends throughout their build season. It’s a huge part of their lives… and their identity.
It makes sense, then, why many FIRST alumni come back to volunteer and even mentor their own teams. As one FIRST alum said, “There’s no exit strategy from FIRST. You’re in it for life.”