Mehulkumar Gandhi, a math teacher at San Luis Middle School (SLMS) since 2009, had no experience as a coach. But when his principal, Rafael Sanchez, encouraged him to start a FIRST® LEGO® League team at the beginning of the 2015-2016 school year, Gandhi jumped right in.
Teacher shows students success through teamwork; inspires community through achievement
May 20, 20162018 FIRST Championship Conferences
Alumni and Career
- Ace Your Next Interview: Inside Secrets from a Professional Recruiter - Ilene Rein (Detroit)
- College 101- A QA with College Admissions Professionals - Michelle Long (Detroit)
- College 101- A QA with College Admissions Professionals - Michelle Long (Houston)
- Navigating the Selective Admissions Process at STEM focused Colleges and Universities - Michael Koch (Detroit)
- Putting FIRST to Work for You: Leveraging your FIRST Experience for Internship and Job Opportunities - Michelle Long (Houston)
- Putting FIRST to Work for You: Leveraging your FIRST Experience for Internship and Job Opportunities - Michelle Long (Detroit)
- Resumes: Learn the Inside Secrets to Grab a Recruiter’s Attention - Ilene Rein (Houston)
- Turning your FIRST Robotics Experience into a Compelling College Admissions Essay - Michael Koch (Houston)
- Using the FIRST Scholarship and Internship Portals - Michelle Long (Detroit)
Diversity and Inclusion
- Assessing Your Own Cultural Awareness and Biases - Shelley Henderson (Houston)
- Building a Community of Technical Women - John Kelly (Houston)
- Developing Your Girls in STEM Strategy - Kaitlyn Sandor (Detroit)
- The Secret to Engaging Girls: Discovering Twice the Power of WOW - Kira Hirsch (Houston)
- The Boys and Girls Club of America Robotics Initiative - Greg Greenlee (Detroit)
- Understanding and Acceptance Inclusiveness for LGBTQ+ people in STEM - Kiran Loewenstein (Detroit)
Education
- FIRST Across the Elementary Curriculum - Jennifer Martin (Houston)
- NASA’s Missions to Small Bodies across our Solar System - Cathy Olkin (Houston)
- STEMMing the Tide of Social Inequalities: Engaging at Risk Students - Scott Heister (Detroit)
- Why K-12 STEM Education is Flawed and What We Can Do to Change Its Culture - Ronit Tiwary (Detroit)
Innovation and Entrepreneurship
- Applying Agile Principles to Your FIRST LEGO League Team - Keith Newstadt (Detroit)
- Experiencing the Technology of Tomorrow, Today: The Wide Range of Applications and Careers in Robotics - Michka Tosan (Detroit)
- How a FIRST Team Can Get Involved With the e-Nable Alliance - Jordan Sayegh (Detroit)
- Innovation: From an Idea to a Life-Changing Technology - Toni Nosbush (Detroit)
- Lenses of Invention with the United States Patent and Trademark Office - Juan Valentin (Detroit)
- Using Design Thinking to Solve Problems - Suzanne McHenry (Detroit)
- Using Machine Learning to Build an Image Classification App! - Neil Deshmukh (Detroit)
Mentor and Coach Resources
- A Gracious Plan for Professional Growth - Richard Evans (Houston)
- Branding Your FIRST Tech Challenge Team - Danielle Boyer (Detroit)
- Business on FIRST Team Fundraising, Budgeting, and Business Plans - Annalee Soohoo (Houston)
- Business Plans Made Easy as Pi - Mike Wenig (Houston)
- Core Values: The Secret to Discovering Your Team’s Mission and Vision - Yoji Shimizu (Detroit)
- Core Values: The Secret to Discovering Your Team’s Mission and Vision - Yoji Shimizu (Houston)
- Creating a Robotics Community Center with FIRST Programs - Scott Chase (Detroit)
- Filmmaking 101 Master Class - Chris Caddell (Houston)
- Finding and Writing Grants to Sustain Your Program - Danielle Evansic (Houston)
- GoBabyGo! Changing a Child’s Life, One Car at a Time - Paige Smith (Detroit)
- Large Scale Outreach, NOW! A Blueprint to build a Cohesive Local, State, and Federal FIRST Advocacy - Steve Hyer (Houston)
- Leading Leaders: Student Autonomy and Mentor Engagement - Christopher Kuszmaul (Detroit)
- Leading Leaders: Student Autonomy and Mentor Engagement - Christopher Kuszmaul (Houston)
- Motivate! Do Not Teach: Motivation Leads to Ownership and Ownership Leads to Innovation - Mufrid Krilic (Detroit)
- Taking FIRST LEGO League to the Next Level with Drones - Gardner Chambliss (Houston)
- The Power of Off Seasons & the Showcase Scrimmage - Terri Willingham (Houston)
- The Secret to a Better Robot: Team Building in FIRST - Liam Fay (Houston)
Technical Resources
- An Innovative Way to Learn How to Code a Robot - Kenny Bae (Detroit)
- Building a Scouting Application that Learns - Wade Gilliam (Houston)
- Building and Contributing to WPILib Suite - Brad Miller (Houston)
- Building and Using a Dynamometer to Characterize FIRST Tech Challenge Legal Electric Motors - John Fraser (Houston)
- Developing a Winning Game Strategy - Mark Taylor (Houston)
- FIRST Robotics Competition Drive Train Motor Training Results - Collin Fultz (Detroit)
- Plate and Standoff Construction: A Simple 2D Method for Creating Accurate 3D Parts - George Kantor (Detroit)
- POWER-FUL SCOUTING: Scouting Strategies and Using Tableau for Improved Decision Making - Andrew Raine (Detroit)
- Selecting Gear Ratios - Basel Alghanem (Detroit)
- Strategies for Using Computer Vision for FIRST Robotics Competition Robots - Brad Miller (Houston)
- The Basics of Swerve Drive - Owen Dray (Detroit)
- Top 20 Robots in FIRST Robotics Competition - Andy Baker
- Understanding Battery Testing for Optimal Robot Performance - Robert Most (Detroit)
- Where Do Robots Come From: Ideas, Designs, and Production - Greg Needel (Detroit)
- Where Do Robots Come From: Ideas, Designs, and Production - Greg Needel (Houston)
The 2016 Season, by the Numbers
May 13, 2016 Written by Frank Merrick.Check out these interesting numbers from the 2016 Season!
Launch of the new Team Registration System!
May 12, 2016 Written by Jamee Luce, FIRST Robotics Competition Team Advocate.FIRST launches the new Team Registration System on Thursday, May 19 at Noon Eastern! More information can be found here.
When it comes to in-school technology, leave brand loyalty at the door
May 11, 2016 by Urvi Shah, Director of Educational Technology and Innovation, Independent Girls School, Maryland
Prepare students for the real-world by implementing a device agnostic technology program. Most 1:1 device programs at schools marry themselves to the idea of buying all their devices as one brand.
Gracious Professionalism. Coopertition.
May 11, 2016 Today's Guest Blog Post is written by Christine Matheney, Technical Evangelist, Microsoft.Christine Matheney, a Technical Evangelist at Microsoft, describes how her experience in the FIRST Robotics Competition helped her get her dream job at Microsoft! Don't forget to submit for Challenge 5 by midnight, Friday, May 13! More information can be found here!
FIRST Terms & Conditions
The information you provide in the Registration System is necessary for FIRST to properly identify a team, the people and the organization directly supporting the team, and to ensure that competition data is accurate for every team.
FIRST respects the privacy of all those involved in its programs and will protect the information given to it according to the Privacy Policy.
Team Registration
Each FIRST team must have two adults, registered in our system to serve as the Coach/Mentor 1 and Coach/Mentor 2 contacts for the season. Each contact must enter a unique, not shared, email account.
For U.S. and Canadian teams both Coach/Mentors must pass screening. The screening is a criminal background and sex offender registry check. Please review the FIRST Youth Protection Policies carefully at the FIRST website.
As many schools have internet firewalls that do not allow school email accounts to receive mail, we highly recommend using an account such as Gmail, Yahoo or Hotmail to ensure timely receipt of all FIRST communications. The Coach/Mentor 1 and Coach/Mentor 2 contacts are recognized by FIRST as the only persons from the team authorized to manage the team information in the Registration System.
Checking the "I agree" button on your user profile indicates:
- You are 13 years of age or older.
- You are aware that it is the shared responsibility of the Coach/Mentor 1 and Coach/Mentor 2 contacts to maintain the accuracy of the Team information.
You have read all information contained within these Terms & Conditions including the FIRST Privacy Policy.
Payment Terms
By registering for any FIRST® Program, you agree to the following payment terms:
All FIRST® Teams |
Below is the FIRST Checkout Process for the current season.
- FIRST will accept donations intended to support a specific FIRST team’s registration fees or other costs associated with participating in FIRST programs only, subject to the following requirements:
For questions, please contact customerservice@firstinspires.org |
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FIRST® Robotics Competition Team Registration |
Changing Event Registration FIRST® Robotics Competition Teams may request to change any Event registration to a comparable Event by submitting a request to FIRST® (by email to customerservice@firstinspires.org). Event registration changes are subject to availability and approval by FIRST.
Fee Refunds Registration Fees paid to FIRST to register for the 2024 FIRST® Robotics Competition Season ("Initial Registration Fee") and Additional Event Fee(s) paid to FIRST for 2024 FIRST Robotics Competition Season Additional Regional Events, Additional In-District Plays, Additional Inter-District Plays, and/or District Championship (“Additional Event”), are non-refundable except as expressly set forth below.
Payment Types:
Regular Check For Checks that need to be Overnighted
All POs will be invoiced with Net 30-day terms. |
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FIRST® Tech Challenge Team Registration |
For Payment Terms related to FIRST Tech Challenge, please click here, FIRST Tech Challenge Registration Payment Terms, to be taken to the PITSCO website. |
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FIRST® LEGO® League Team Registration and Products |
Payments must be submitted to FIRST Finance referencing the Team Number(s) or Account Number(s), and Program(s). Once registered the system will give you the option to print out an invoice for the amount due. |
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Payment Types:
Regular Check For Checks that need to be Overnighted
Purchase Order (PO): You may upload your purchase order through the payment screen in the registration system FIRST cannot accept a commitment letter from a School or School District. Schools and School Districts should issue legally binding Purchase Orders as provided above. All POs will be invoiced with Net 30-day terms. FIRST LEGO League Refund Policy: Program registration and product purchase(s) are non-refundable. There are no exceptions to this process regardless of reason. |
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FIRST Class Pack Registration and Products |
Payments must be submitted to FIRST Finance referencing the Team Number(s) or Account Number(s), and Program(s). Once registered the system will give you the option to print out an invoice for the amount due. |
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Payment Types:
Regular Check For Checks that need to be Overnighted
Purchase Order (PO): You may upload your purchase order through the payment screen in the registration system FIRST cannot accept a commitment letter from a School or School District. Schools and School Districts should issue legally binding Purchase Orders as provided above. All POs will be invoiced with Net 30-day terms. FIRST Class Pack Refund Policy: Program registration and product purchase(s) are non-refundable. There are no exceptions to this process regardless of reason. |
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FIRST Championship Registration for FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST Tech Challenge, FIRST Lego League Challenge, and FIRST Lego League Explore |
Payments must be submitted to FIRST Finance referencing the Team Number(s) or Account Number(s), and Program(s). Once registered the system will give you the option to print out an invoice for the amount due. Registration Fees paid to FIRST to register for FIRST Championship are non-refundable except as expressly set forth below:
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Payment Types:
Regular Check For Checks that need to be Overnighted
All POs will be invoiced with Net 30-day terms. |
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Event Registration for FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Tech Challenge Teams |
FIRST Program Delivery Partners (PDPs) run local and regional events, which may include physical, remote, or a combination of physical and remote elements. For a team to participate in an event, the team must register with FIRST as well as with their local FIRST Program Delivery Partner. PDPs may charge an additional fee to participate in these events, and those fees and payment terms are set by the FIRST Program Delivery Partner. FIRST Championship Registration is available to qualifying FIRST LEGO League and FIRST Tech Challenge Teams for an additional fee. Refund Policy: Program registration and product purchase(s) are non-refundable. There are no exceptions to this process regardless of reason. |
Gifts and remainders of gifts accepted on behalf of a specific FIRST team that are not utilized by the specific FIRST team at the end of each FIRST fiscal year will become unrestricted gifts to FIRST.
For details on regrants and the regrant process please go Regranting, Process, Procedures, and W-9 | FIRST (firstinspires.org).
Big News! And Season Thoughts (Later...)
May 05, 2016 Written by Frank Merrick.2017 and 2018 Championship 'home' assignments.
Teacher to teacher: 5 Ways to Encourage Classroom Creativity
May 05, 2016This season, 13 million hours of service were completed by FIRST Volunteers – many of whom are educators who act as Coaches, Mentors and more. So not surprisingly, at FIRST, we consider every week teacher’s week. But in honor of National Teacher’s Week, we offer some advice from one of our favorite educators, Krissy Venosdale.