FIRST in Michigan Progression of Programs

I am the current Team Leader of Truck Town Thunder Robotics team. (2015 MSC RCA Winner) I currently have a program that I oversee that has 15 Jr. FLL Teams, 6 FLL Teams, 2 FTC Teams, 1 OCCRA Team, 4 VEX Teams and one FRC Team. We have started programs in my neighboring communities that are very similar to ours and was our argument to emulation for our RCA submission. In that community, in less than two years, we were able to start an FRC Team, Three FTC teams and are primed to start 6 FLL teams. The reason I talk about this is to give some context as to my experience.

So, from my experience here are my thoughts.

1. Jr FLL is awesome, inspiring and one of the coolest programs in FIRST. Working with kids that age is ALWAYS fun. This is very doable to get the community, teachers, and administration involved. I even had the principal running two all girls teams. It was awesome. (Age Appropriateness is perfect)

2. FLL - Let's get real for a minute. I am pretty sure the kit says 8+ on the side of the box. Anyhow, this is perfectly suited for students 4th - 6th grade. I had 2 teams make it to the state championships this year and one of them was a rookie team. Both teams the students were involved in all aspects, they were successful, they were able to score massive amounts of points. The rookie team was ran by a sophomore on my high school team. There is no reason students at this age level can't participate and be very successful in the age group.

3. FTC - Yes, this does fit. FIRST programs are successful because of mentorship. It is important that there are good mentors in your program. Yes, high school kids can mentor. (It let's them practice leadership) It's an excellent transition into the bigger robots in FRC and the students begin to work with adults. I have learned a lot of lessons here. 1. Get high school kids involved as mentors. 2. Eliminate barriers for them. 3. be supportive. 4. they just need to be motivated that they can do it.

4. FRC is perfect in high school. Rookie Teams are all coming back the second year.

Overall, this progression works! We have proven it. Feel free to read our Chairmans Submission posted on the FIRST website for all of the teams in the world to see. My high school students learn the ideals of FIRST earlier by mentoring. They learn why FIRST exists by mentoring younger teams. As an educator, there is no program in school that inspires kids to do more with their lives. It has changed my educational philosophy!

The FIM progression of programs works fine this way. I would be happy to meet with anyone who would like to discuss how they can better fit their program to this progression. It is way easier than you think.

I will leave you with a quote:

"Leadership is not a license to do less. Leadership is a responsibility to do more." - Simon Sinek