FIRST Robotics Fund

The Northshore Community Foundation (NCF), in partnership with Team 1912 Combustion, the Office of Naval Research, and the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) at Stennis Space Center, MS, announce the expansion of For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology (FIRST) in the St. Tammany Parish Public Schools (STPPS) beginning in the fall of 2015.

FIRST is an international youth organization that operates some of the largest and mostly highly-regarded robotics competitions: FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) inspire high school students to become engineers with giving them real world experience to work with engineers to develop a robot, FIRST LEGO League (FLL) are for students ages 9-14 who are given the experience to build simple palm size model of real life robotic system and Junior FIRST LEGO League (JrFLL) for students ages 5-8 who are given the experience to build Lego robot model with at least one moving part.

The FIRST program will address the critical need of engaging more school-aged students in grades 2-12 in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) related activities on the local level with plans to expand FIRST competition robotics program to underserved schools that do not currently have FIRST teams as well as to support the existing FIRST Robotics teams in St. Tammany Parish Public Schools.

FIRST Robotics Team Program for 2018-2019

The expanded program will support new and existing FTC teams, FLL teams, and JrFLL teams. Team support will include:

* the FIRST team registration cost.

* parts kit sufficient to participate in the expo or competition.

* a nominal stipend for the teacher sponsor, after the team participates in a qualifying competition (STPSB teams/teachers only, one per team).

Teams/schools will be responsible for their tournament and expo fees and optional costs.

For more information or to apply for support, visit the Team Combustion website at team1912.com/rookie.html or email team1912rookie@att.net