Updated

• July 2, 2018

Events Where It Is Awarded

• District Events
• Regional Competitions
• District Championships**
• FIRST Championship Divisions

Description

Celebrates outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering within a team’s school or organization and community.

Guidelines

• Extent and inventiveness of the team’s efforts to recruit students to engineering with particular emphasis on the most recent year’s efforts. Measurable success of those efforts.
• Extent and effectiveness of the team’s community outreach efforts with particular emphasis on the most recent year’s efforts. Measurable success of those efforts.
• A commitment to science and technology education among the team, school, and community.
• Achievement of the FIRST mission and ability to communicate that at the competition and away from it.
• Efforts are ongoing, not strictly concentrated on the build and competition season.

Eligibility

Teams* are eligible for the Engineering Inspiration Award at each Regional or District event. Teams will be restricted to earning this award once at each level of competition. In other words, once a team has earned Engineering Inspiration Award at a Regional or District event, they may not earn it again that season at a later Regional or District Event. At District Championship, only District teams that have won Engineering Inspiration Award at a District event during the current season are eligible.

*District Teams who participate at Regionals or inter-district events are not eligible for the Engineering Inspiration Award at those events.

**An interview room may be used for this award at the District Championships.Teams should not prepare a presentation for this interview. The purpose of this interview is to replace the traditional pit interview. Please consult your district leadership with any questions.

​

 

Updated

• July 2, 2018

Events Where It Is Awarded

• District Events
• Regional Competitions
• District Championship Divisions (for those Districts with multiple Divisions at their District Championships)
• District Championships (for those Districts with single Divisions at their District Championships)
• FIRST Championship Divisions

Description

In honor of Jack Kamen, Dean’s father, for his dedication to art and illustration and his devotion to FIRST. This award celebrates attractiveness in engineering and outstanding visual aesthetic integration of machine and team appearance.

Guidelines

• Appearance of machine and team are integrated in an attractive theme.
• Visuals of the integrated team/machine are exceptional.
• The team theme is supportive of the FIRST Core Values.
• The team’s theme is original, can be explained by a team spokesperson, and is fitting to the objectives, character, and/or history of the team.

Updated

• April 10, 2018

Events Where It Is Awarded

• District Events
• Regional Competitions
• District Championship Divisions (for those Districts with multiple Divisions at their District Championships)
• District Championships (for those Districts with single Divisions at their District Championships)
• FIRST Championship Division

Description

During the course of the competition, the judging panel may decide a team’s unique efforts, performance, or dynamics merit recognition.

Guidelines

• The team keeps appearing for consideration for other awards.
• Other Judges have noticed and commented on the positive aspects of the team.
• A unique happening or feature (often one that demonstrates the team has fully embraced the principles of FIRST) has caught a Judge’s attention.

Updated

• June 13, 2022

Events Where It Is Awarded

• District Events
• Regional Competitions
• District Championships**
• FIRST Championship Divisions

Description

Celebrates the rookie team exemplifying a young but strong partnership effort, as well as implementing the mission of FIRST to inspire students to learn more about science and technology.

As announced in this FIRST Robotics Competition Blog, both 2021 and 2022 Rookies are eligible for Rookie Awards in 2022. 

As there are often far fewer rookie teams than veteran teams present at events, Judges have the option of not presenting this award if they feel no rookie team competing meets the criteria.

Guidelines

• This team seems like a “FIRST Impact Award team in the making.” (Community activities, leadership, vision, spirit, etc.)
• The team is a true partnership between school or organization and sponsors.
• The team understands what FIRST is really trying to accomplish – realizes that technical stuff is fun, challenging, and offers a future.
• This team has built a robot appropriate to the game’s challenges.

Eligibility

Rookie Teams* are eligible for the Rookie All-Star Award at each Regional or District event. Teams will be restricted to earning this award once at each level of competition. In other words, once a team has earned Rookie All-Star Award at a Regional or District event, they may not earn it again that season at a later Regional or District Event. At District Championship, only District teams that have won Rookie All-Star Award at a District event during the current season are eligible.

*District Teams who participate at Regionals or inter-district events are not eligible for the Rookie All-Star Award at those events.

**An interview room may be used for this award at the District Championships.Teams should not prepare a presentation for this interview. The purpose of this interview is to replace the traditional pit interview. Please consult your district leadership with any questions.

Updated

• February 3, 2022

Events Where It Is Awarded

• District Events
• Regional Competitions
• District Championship Divisions (for those Districts with multiple Divisions at their District Championships)
• District Championships (for those Districts with single Divisions at their District Championships)
• FIRST Championship Divisions

Description

Celebrates a rookie team’s outstanding success in advancing respect and appreciation for engineering and engineers, both within their school, as well as in their community.

As announced in this FIRST Robotics Competition Blog, both 2021 and 2022 Rookies are eligible for Rookie Awards in 2022. 

As there are often far fewer rookie teams than veteran teams present at events, Judges have the option of not presenting this award if they feel no rookie team competing meets the criteria.

Guidelines

• Effectiveness and inventiveness of the team’s efforts to recruit students to engineering.
• Extent and effectiveness of the team’s community outreach efforts.
• A commitment to science and technology education among the team.
• Ability to communicate understanding of the FIRST mission at the competition and away from it.

Updated

• April 10, 2018

Events Where It Is Awarded

• District Events
• Regional Competitions
• District Championship Divisions (for those Districts with multiple Divisions at their District Championships)
• District Championships (for those Districts with single Divisions at their District Championships)
• FIRST Championship Divisions

Description

Celebrates extraordinary enthusiasm and spirit through exceptional partnership and teamwork furthering the objectives of FIRST.

Guidelines

• Spirit is consistent both throughout the team and also throughout the contest in attitude, appearance, originality, and depth.
• The team displays obvious enthusiasm – in supporting teams, appearance, interactions with teams/Judges, etc. – at the competition.
• Spirit is part of the team and is apparent in all they do, including at their school, in their community, with sponsors and other teams, etc.
• They demonstrate spirit as a unified team.

Updates

• September 7, 2023

Events Where It's Awarded

• District Events
• Regional Competitions
• District Championship Divisions (for those Districts with multiple Divisions at their District Championships)
• District Championships (for those Districts with single Divisions at their District Championships)
• FIRST Championship Divisions

Description

Updated

• September 12, 2023

Events Where It Is Awarded

• District Events
• Regional Competitions
• District Championship Divisions (for those Districts with multiple Divisions at their District Championships)
• District Championships (for those Districts with single Divisions at their District Championships)
• FIRST Championship Divisions

Description

Celebrates the team that has demonstrated consistent, reliable, high-performance robot operation during autonomously managed actions. Evaluation is based on the robot’s ability to sense its surroundings, position itself or onboard mechanisms appropriately, and execute tasks.

Guidelines

• The award is based on the performance of the robot’s autonomous (non-operator guided) operations during matches
• Consistent and reliable operation is weighted more heavily than the ability to score maximum points during any specific autonomously managed actions
• A team must be able to explain:
  • How the robot understands its surroundings, navigates on the field or positions onboard mechanisms and then executes tasks.
  • The factors the teams considered that could interfere with success during autonomously managed actions.
  • The design, development, and testing that was done for the robot’s autonomously managed actions.

Updated

• August 26, 2021

Events Where It Is Awarded

• District Events
• Regional Competitions
• District Championship Divisions (for those Districts with multiple Divisions at their District Championships)
• District Championships (for those Districts with single Divisions at their District Championships)
• FIRST Championship Divisions

Description

Celebrates creativity that enhances strategy of play and was intentionally designed and not discovered.

Guidelines

• A team must be able to competently describe the creative/unique feature(s) and can trace its conception and design.
• Since creativity may involve risk of failure, the team should be able to describe how they mitigated that risk.
• The creative element’s uniqueness has a practical application and contributes to the objectives of the competition.
• Developing the creative element contributed to the team’s success on the field.

​

Updated

• August 26, 2021

Events Where It Is Awarded

• District Events
• Regional Competitions
• District Championship Divisions (for those Districts with multiple Divisions at their District Championships)
• District Championships (for those Districts with single Divisions at their District Championships)
• FIRST Championship Divisions

Description

Celebrates the team that demonstrates a professional approach to the design process

Guidelines

• A team must be able to describe the engineering process they went through and can trace elements of the designs from conception.
• The designs reflect an engineering solution to a specific problem, and it is functional and practical.
• The designs are elegant and advantageous on the field of play. 

Updated

• August 26, 2021

Events Where It Is Awarded

• District Events
• Regional Competitions
• District Championship Divisions (for those Districts with multiple Divisions at their District Championships)
• District Championships (for those Districts with single Divisions at their District Championships)
• FIRST Championship Divisions

Description

Celebrates the team that demonstrates industrial design principles, striking a balance between form, function, and aesthetics. 

Guidelines

• A team must be able to describe how their robot is elegant, efficient (simple/executable), and practical.
• The entire machine design, or the detailed process used to develop the design, is worthy of this recognition, and not just a single component.
• The robot distinguishes itself from others by its aesthetic and functional design. 

Updated

• August 26, 2021

Events Where It Is Awarded

• District Events
• Regional Competitions
• District Championship Divisions (for those Districts with multiple Divisions at their District Championships)
• District Championships (for those Districts with single Divisions at their District Championships)
• FIRST Championship Divisions

Description

Celebrates an innovative control system or application of control components – electrical, mechanical or software – to provide unique machine functions.

Guidelines

• A team must be able to identify and describe the controls innovation and can trace its conception, design, manufacturing/assembly, or deployment.
• The control system is innovative and unique. It is integrated with the machine, human players, strategy, etc. in concept and execution.
• The innovation is practical; it addresses the game’s challenge and is reliable under the stress of competition. 

Updated

• August 26, 2021

Events Where It Is Awarded

• District Events
• Regional Competitions
• District Championship Divisions (for those Districts with multiple Divisions at their District Championships)
• District Championships (for those Districts with single Divisions at their District Championships)
• FIRST Championship Divisions

Description

Celebrates machine robustness in concept and fabrication

Guidelines

• A team must be able to describe their quality plan i.e. how their design ensures robustness throughout the entire competition.
• The entire machine demonstrates quality: workmanship, welds, attachment systems, wiring, paint, etc.
• The machine can withstand the rigors of competition – maintaining functionality, including the use of designed-in redundancy and risk mitigation measures.
• Building the machine contributes to the team’s success.

Updated

• January 23, 2024

 

Dates

• Submission Opens: Thursday, November 2, 2023, at 12pm ET
• Submission Closes: Thursday, February 15, 2024, at 3pm ET

 

Description

The FIRST Impact Award (formerly the Chairman's Award) is the most prestigious award at FIRST, it honors the team that best represents a model for other teams to emulate and best embodies the mission of FIRST. It was created to keep the central focus of FIRST Robotics Competition on the ultimate goal of transforming the culture in ways that will inspire greater levels of respect and honor for science and technology, as well as encouraging more of today’s youth to become science and technology leaders. 

 

Overview

The concept of the FIRST Impact Award enables FIRST to recognize teams for their exemplary efforts in spreading the FIRST message. Teams must submit for this award by the deadline to be eligible for the award. After submitting, teams will receive an email to confirm the submission has been accepted and it will also list the events the team is eligible to be judged at. The teams who have earned the Regional and District Championship FIRST Impact Award can travel to the FIRST Championship to be considered for the FIRST Impact Award.

 

FIRST Impact Award Eligibility 

Teams are eligible for the FIRST Impact Award at each Regional or District event at which they compete. District Teams are not eligible to win, nor can they interview for the FIRST Impact Award at Regional events or inter-district events. Teams will be restricted to earning this award once at each level of competition and once they have won, they cannot interview. In other words, once a team has earned the FIRST Impact Award at a Regional or District event, they may not interview for or earn it again that season at a later Regional or District Event.

FIRST will present a FIRST Impact Award to 1 winning team at each Regional and District event. FIRST Impact Award recipients from District events will go forward to be considered for the FIRST Impact Award at the District Championship. FIRST Impact Award recipients from Regionals and the District Championships will go forward to be considered for the FIRST Impact Award at the FIRST Championship.

* Note: All teams that received a NASA Grant must prepare a FIRST Impact Award submission online through the FIRST Dashboard as part of the grant requirement even though they may be ineligible to win if they fall into one of the below categories.

Ineligible Teams

• Hall of Fame
  Hall of Fame teams are teams that have already earned the Championship FIRST Impact Award and are ineligible to resubmit for consideration for 5 years. 
• First Year Teams
  Because the FIRST Impact Award recognizes sustained excellence and impact, not just a 1 year team effort, it is not possible for any first-year team (including rookie teams and new teams that have been assigned a veteran number) to receive the FIRST Impact Award. First year teams will NOT be considered for the award and will not be interviewed.

 

Submission Content and Award Emphasis

The FIRST Impact Award is presented to the team judged to best exemplify the true meaning of FIRST through measurable impact on participants, school, and community at large with emphasis on promoting science and technology through FIRST programs.

While the FIRST Impact Award is about “more than robots”, teams often leverage their robots to enhance their impact on the broader community. For this reason, it is expected teams in contention for the FIRST Impact Award will have built a robot appropriate to the game’s challenges for the season. This does not require the team to have ranked at a certain level during the event but does require teams to put in more than just the minimal effort necessary to field a drivable robot.

The criterion for the FIRST Impact Award has special emphasis on recent accomplishments within the last 3 years. The judges focus on teams’ activities over a sustained period, as distinguished from just the robot design and build period.

The FIRST Robotics Competition is not about machines; it is about the experience of people working together toward a shared goal. Documenting and preserving your team’s FIRST experience becomes an important component of the over-all FIRST experience.

 

Submission Format

• Each executive summary is limited to 500 characters, including spaces and punctuation (with an exception of the last question).
• The Essay is limited to 10,000 characters, including spaces and punctuation.
• To help standardize FIRST Impact Award judging, FIRST has developed a definition list for terms commonly used by teams. Teams are responsible for policing their own choice of words. Click here to see the FIRST Impact Award Definitions. 
  • Please note that teams are encouraged to show their FIRST Impact Award Documentation Form (editable word doc here) to the judges during the interview. Note that this is not a required form (i.e. you can still be eligible without this form) but providing it shows the Judges that your activities are well planned and documented.

 

Submission Process

• A student who is designated as the Award Submitter or lead mentor 1 or 2 can submit the FIRST Impact Award submission
  • The lead mentor 1 or 2 for each team can assign up to two (2) student award submitters in the FIRST Dashboard. Check out the Instructions to assign an Awards Submitter if you need assistance. 
• In preparing this submission, bear in mind that students, engineers, teachers, community, school, sponsors, families, and other supporters are all integral parts of your team experience. Your submission needs to clearly convey the factors outlined below.
• Submitters must enter information, save it, and return to the site to edit the FIRST Impact Award submission until they are ready to finalize it for final judging. All entries must be finalized and submitted by the deadline. No entries will be accepted or altered after the deadline.
• The team must submit their FIRST Impact Award submission, in English**, through the FIRST Dashboard and enter the following required information. Team Number, Name, and Location are automatically included and provided to the judges. 
  • ** FIRST Impact Award Submissions may be in the team’s native language if they are interviewing at an event that speaks their native language. If not, the submission must be in English.
  • If a team wins and their submission was not written in English, they have 1 week from the end of the event (for weeks 1-5) to translate the submission to English. For week 6 events, we must receive translated submission by the Monday immediately following the event. If we do not receive a translated copy of the submission by the deadline, they will no longer be eligible at the FIRST Championship event. 
    • For FIRST Impact Award, please send the translated essays to frcteamadvocate@firstinspires.org with the event name in the subject line.
• Teams will not be able to submit the application without agreeing to the FIRST Impact Award Video Consent & Release of Rights Form in the submission portal. No entries will be accepted or altered after this deadline.
• Teams will also see a question inviting them to submit a link to their FIRST Impact Award Video
  • Teams are optionally invited to submit a URL to their FIRST Impact Award Video. The video must be hosted on one of these three (3) file sharing sites (Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive) and be made public to allow video downloads.

 

Executive Summaries

• Describe the impact of the FIRST program on team participants within the last 3 years. This can include but is not limited to percentages of those graduating high school, attending college, in STEM careers, and in FIRST programs as mentors/sponsors.
• Describe your community along with how your team addresses its unique opportunities and circumstances.
• Describe the team’s methods, with emphasis on the past 3 years, for spreading the FIRST message in ways that are effective, scalable, sustainable, and creative. How does your team measure results?
• Please provide specific examples of how your team members act as role models within the FIRST community with emphasis on the past 3 years.
• Describe your team’s initiatives to Assist, Mentor, and/or Start other FIRST teams with emphasis on activities within the past 3 years.
• Beyond starting teams, what initiatives have you done to help inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators? What results have you seen from your efforts in the past 3 years?
• Describe the partnerships you've created with other organizations (teams, sponsors, educational institutions, philanthropic entities, etc.) and what you have accomplished together with emphasis on the past 3 years.
• Describe your team's efforts in the past 3 years to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion within your team, FIRST, and your communities.
• Explain how you ensure your team and the initiatives you have created will continue to run effectively for the foreseeable future.
• Describe your team’s innovative strategies to recruit, retain, and engage your sponsors within the past 3 years.
• Highlight one area in which your team needs to improve and describe the steps actively being taken to make those improvements.
• Describe your team’s goals to fulfill the mission of FIRST and the progress you have made towards those goals.
• Briefly describe other matters of interest to the FIRST Judges, including items that may not fit into the above topics. The judges are interested in learning about aspects of your team that may be unique or particularly noteworthy.
• (OPTIONAL) Please use this space to ask 1 question to your FIRST Impact Award Judges which will be answered after each event with feedback from the judges (250 characters maximum). Note: Questions asking what is required to win the award will not be answered. 

 

Essay

• The essay portion of the FIRST Impact Award submission provides teams an opportunity to describe their activities and achievements in narrative form. While Judges encourage creativity of expression, the essay must clearly deliver information and facts describing what the team is about. Teams are encouraged to use some of this space to explain how their team is structured and the number of mentors and students on the team.
• The essay should avoid merely duplicating information provided in the executive summary questions. However, it is appropriate for the essay to further expand on those responses and provide more in-depth discussion of notable team achievements.
• The most effective essays are characterized by an overview of team activities during the last 3 years, followed by in-depth discussion of notable activities during the most recent 12-18 months. Judges use the essay to get a big picture view of the team and to learn about achievements that may be unique and noteworthy. 

 

FIRST Impact Award Interview Process

Teams who have successfully submitted for the FIRST Impact Award will be randomly assigned to an interview time slot at each eligible event. Once the interview schedule has been posted, Pit Admin will make an announcement and teams can see the slot to which they are assigned. Some teams may need to request to change time slots. In order to do so, the team must find another team who is willing to switch. Both teams will then go to Pit Admin and request the time change. Pit Admin is the only group who can approve the change. Pit Admin will alert the Judge Advisor or Judge Advisor Assistant.

• FIRST Impact Award interviews are limited to 12 minutes total; up to 7 minutes for a presentation by the team (which includes set-up) and the remaining time (5 minutes) is for question and answers led by the judges. If teams use less time than 7 minutes for their presentation, judges may use the remaining minutes (out of 12) for Q and A. To ensure consistency, it is very important that all interviews are no longer than 12 minutes.
  • Interviews are conducted in English (with the exception of teams interviewing at events in Brazil, China, Chinese Taipei, Israel, Mexico, Quebec, and Turkey).
  • Teams needing a translator or sign-language interpreter may include an additional person to act as that translator/interpreter. The translator/interpreter does not need to be a team member. For these teams, the duration of the interview is increased by up to 5 minutes – up to 2 minutes for the presentation and up to 3 minutes for the Q&A portion.
• No more than 3 student (pre-college) team members are allowed to present information or answer questions from the Judges. One adult Team Mentor may attend the interview as a silent observer and later provide feedback to the team, but the mentor is not allowed to provide any assistance during the interview. We highly encourage this silent observer in order to provide timely feedback to the team based on observations and noting judges’ questions. This feedback can be very valuable in helping teams hone their skills. Teams will not be marked down for having a mentor present. If the mentor provides any assistance during the interview, the Judges should respectfully remind the mentor of the rule.

Note: These mentors are not allowed to record video or audio or take pictures during the interview.
Exception: If necessary, the adult mentor may provide translation services for students needing foreign language or sign language translation. This person does not count as the adult mentor observer.

 

FIRST Impact Award Resources

 

Feedback 

All teams that interview at a Regional or District event will receive feedback on both the interview and their submission. The feedback will answer 3 questions

1. An area the team has an opportunity to improve,
2. Something that really impressed the judges, and
3. A team submitted question (optional - see last executive summary above). 

 

Suggested Feedback Questions

To help teams who may be unsure of what question to put in the optional feedback question, we have compiled a few options that teams may choose from:

• Is there something more that we can do to improve our presentation?
• Is there anything missing from our submitted materials?
• Which outreach activity do you feel we execute most effectively?

Teams will receive this feedback for all Regional and District Events from the event judges automatically 48 hours after the event. Please note that teams will not receive feedback at FIRST Championship. See the FIRST Impact Award Resource webpage for instructions on how to access the feedback. 

 

FIRST Impact Award Video 

Teams submitting for the FIRST Impact Award are invited to optionally provide a video link along with their submission. The team that is awarded this award will have their video shown during the award ceremony (if available). The content of the video should explain what the team has done to earn the FIRST Impact Award. The video content may be in the team’s native language, but if that language is not English, the team should add English subtitles. The video may be shown to the judges during the team’s presentation if the team chooses. In addition, the team must provide the equipment for viewing (i.e. laptop/speakers etc.) the video if they intend to show it during their interview. 

Content Guidelines:

• Please show us what you are doing to earn the FIRST Impact Award
• Please do not identify minors by full name, use only first names. 

The Video format is as follows:

• A 16:9 (“widescreen aspect ratio”)
• Not more than 3 minutes long, no shorter than 1 minute long.
• Include a clean audio track
• Free of copyright restrictions, including music.
• The video must be hosted on one of these three (3) file sharing sites (Dropbox, Box, and Google Drive) and be made public to allow video downloads.

Video may consist of:

• Video footage
• Voice over/music over still photographs
• Animated presentation
• PowerPoint converted to VIDEO format

Sound:

• Should be clear of pops and hisses

Copyright:

• If using copyrighted music must have written permission
• If using Creative Commons Music (CCM) online, the music must be used in accordance with the appropriate license and properly attributed.
• Music may not contain offensive or suggestive language

Note: Unless you show your video as part of your presentation, your video will not be judged as part of your submission, though an inappropriate video will disqualify you from winning. The FIRST Impact Award is our highest honor and teams who receive the FIRST Impact Award represent the highest standards of FIRST. 

 

Regional/District Championship FIRST Impact Award

Teams that have earned the FIRST Impact Award at a Regional or District Championship will be requested via email from FIRST HQ to submit a link of their official FIRST Impact Award Video and presentation video for posting along with their online submission. These will be used as resources for current and future FIRST Impact Award submitting teams. We want other teams to be able to see what it takes to be selected for this most prestigious award.

 

The FIRST Impact Award Championship Award Process

At the FIRST Championship, a panel of judges will interview teams and review the submissions from all the Regional and District Championship FIRST Impact Award recipients and will select 6 FIRST Impact Award Finalists and from those, 1 winning FIRST Impact Award recipient. The Championship FIRST Impact Award teams become Hall of Fame Members.

 

The Allaire Medal - Leadership Defined

The Allaire Medal recognizes leadership exemplified and is awarded to an individual student on the team selected as the FIRST Impact Award team.

Named in honor of Paul A. Allaire, a long-serving FIRST Chairman of the Board, the Allaire Medal is given to the student who has demonstrated outstanding leadership on their FIRST team, within their school and community and whose personal character best embodies the spirit of FIRST.

The team earning the FIRST Impact Award at the Championship will select the Allaire Medal recipient. The adult and student team members of the FIRST Impact Award team determine the recipient. The recipient must be a high school junior or senior who has been accepted into a 4-year degree program at a college or university. The Allaire Medalist receives the Allaire medallion and up to $10,000 in total scholarship support for undergraduate tuition, room/board and fees/books at their intended university or college. 

Updated

• September 5, 2023

Dates

• Submission Opens: Thursday, November 2, 2023, at 12pm ET​
• Submission Closes: Thursday, February 8, 2024, at 3pm ET

Description

In an effort to recognize the leadership and dedication of the most outstanding secondary school students in FIRST^®, the Kamen family sponsors awards for selected 10^th or 11^th grade* students known as the FIRST^® Robotics Competition and the FIRST^® Tech Challenge FIRST Dean’s List Award.

There are four (4) levels of FIRST Dean’s List Award students.

• FIRST Dean’s List Award Semi-finalists – comprised of the two (2) students in their 10th or 11th school year* nominated by each team.
• FIRST Dean’s List Award District Championship Semi-finalists – The students selected at District events to be interviewed at the District Championship for Finalist consideration. 
• FIRST Dean’s List Finalists - The students selected for each Regional and District Region. Each Regional is allotted 2 Dean's List Award Finalists, and the number of Finalists per District varies. Please visit the Championship Eligibility Criteria page for the number of Dean's List Award Finalists allotted to each District. 
• FIRST Dean’s List Winners -  comprised of the ten (10) FIRST Robotics Competition and ten (10) FIRST Tech Challenge students selected from the applicable FIRST Dean’s List Finalists.

The students who earn FIRST Dean’s List status as either a Semi-finalist, Finalist or Winner, are great examples of student leaders who have led their teams and communities to increased awareness for FIRST and its mission. It is the goal of FIRST that these individuals will continue, post-award, as great leaders, student alumni, and advocates of FIRST.

In 2019, the Woodie Flowers Memorial Grant was established for Dean’s List Award Winners pursuing STEAM fields of study.

*NOTE: For regions of the world that do not use grade levels such as this to identify years of schooling: This award is intended for students who are two (2) to three (3) years away from entering college or university. Students that would be attending college or university in the next academic year are not eligible. Mentors will be asked for the year of graduation during the nomination process.

Nomination Criteria

Criteria for selection of the FIRST Dean’s List Award shall include, but not be limited to a student’s:

• Demonstrated leadership and commitment to the FIRST Core Values 
• Effectiveness at increasing awareness of FIRST in their school and community 
• Demonstrates passion for a long-term commitment to FIRST 
• The student’s individual contributions to their team contribute to the overall success of the team
• Proven experience in areas of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM)
• The student is a role model and can motivate and lead fellow team members 

After careful review of the criteria for the Dean’s List Award, each team is invited to nominate up to two student members as Semi-finalists who are 10^th or 11^th grade students. It’s important that teams nominate only those students they believe are truly deserving of this honor. Students who are in the 10th and 11th grade that mentor the team (and do not actively participate as members of the team) are not eligible.

A mentor, who is not related to either of the students chosen as the team’s Dean’s List Semi-finalists, shall complete and submit the application in the Team Registration System to compete for the FIRST Dean’s List Finalist designation. Students previously selected as FIRST Dean’s List Semi-finalists or Finalists in a prior year are eligible for nomination again this year provided they meet all of the criteria.

Please note: By making a submission, the Submitter irrevocably grants FIRST and FIRST designees the right to use any or all of the submission in any and all media for the purpose of describing the submission, describing the award, and/or otherwise promoting FIRST and FIRST programs.

To be nominated and to receive an interview, students MUST have a signed FIRST Consent and Release form. Students with a FIRST Dashboard account and a signed Consent and Release form in their profile can be selected in the drop-down list in the nomination portal. If the student does not have a signed form in their account, or does not have an account, mentors may check off a new checkbox acknowledging that they have a signed paper copy of the FIRST Consent and Release form before submitting. Paper forms may be acquired by reaching out to your local leadership. Please see the Interview Process section below for information on submitting the paper form. ​

For more information about submitting for the Dean's List Award, required information for the nomination, writing an essay and preparing for an interview, please view the FIRST Robotics Competition Dean's List Award Guide.

Applications for the FIRST Robotics Competition Dean’s List are submitted via the FIRST Dashboard.

Essays

The essay has been broken down into five prompts with 800 characters each, below. Essays should be specific about the Semi-finalist’s contributions to FIRST generally, and to their team specifically. Specific examples are helpful to the judges. Information about the Semi-finalist outside of FIRST may also be supportive of the nomination but is secondary to information about the student’s participation in FIRST. Essays must be submitted in English** between the dates noted above.

** Dean’s List Award Submissions may be in the team’s native language if they are interviewing at an event that speaks their native language. If not, the submission must be in English. If a student is selected as a Dean's List Award Finalist and their submission was not written in English, they have 1 week from the end of the event (for weeks 1-5) to translate the submission to English. For week 6 events, we must receive translated submission by the Monday immediately following the event. If we do not receive a translated copy of the submission by the deadline, they will no longer be eligible at the FIRST Championship event. For Dean’s List, please send the translated essays to deanslist@firstinspires.org with the event name in the subject line.

1. Explain how the student embodies the philosophies of Gracious Professionalism and Coopertition through the FIRST Core Values: Discovery, Innovation, Impact, Inclusion, Teamwork and Fun. Please provide examples.
2. How has the student increased the awareness of FIRST? Describe the student’s interests and/or plans to continue to engage with FIRST beyond high school. Please provide examples.
3. How does the student's individual contribution to the team benefit the whole? Please provide examples.
4. Describe the students' experience in areas of STEM. This could include but is not limited to skills in engineering, software, CAD, fabrication, etc. Please provide examples.
5. Explain the student’s leadership to their fellow team members. How do they motivate others? What is their leadership style? Please provide examples.

New! Additional Comments – 500-character limit

6. Please share anything else you would like us to know about the student, including academic performance, specialized skills, or additional extracurricular activities.

 

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Updated

• October 31, 2023

Dates

• Submission Opens: Thursday, November 2, 2023, at 12pm ET​
• Submission Closes: Thursday, February 8, 2024, at 3pm ET

Woodie Flowers Finalist Award (WFFA)

The Regional and District Championship Woodie Flowers Awards celebrate effective communication in the art and science of engineering and design. This award is known as the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. Being selected as a WFFA is a requirement to be eligible for the Championship Woodie Flowers Award.

Spirit of the Award

This award recognizes an individual who has done an outstanding job of motivation through communication while also challenging the students to be clear and succinct in their communications. As such, it is very important that this be a student-led effort and a student decision.Team students should decide whom to nominate. Team students should write the essay nomination in their own words.

Team mentors should check the essay and the submission information for accuracy, but this must be a student-led effort. Lead Mentors should direct one student to use their FIRST Dashboard to complete the Woodie Flowers nomination.

Eligibility

Students may nominate a mentor that is registered on their team in the FIRST dashboard. A mentor may only receive the WFFA one time regardless of the number of teams the mentor has served.

Nominated mentors must be registered with the team and be an active Mentor that is attending meetings and mentoring students on that team.

 

Judging Criteria

Two aspects of this award are important: (1) the accomplishments in communication by the mentor and (2) the student’s ability to communicate clearly and concisely through their nomination.

A specific judging criterion is based upon the team’s description of how the mentor inspired each member of the team in some or all the following ways:

• Level of student participation; 
• Creativity of effort; 
• Clear explanation of mathematical, scientific, and engineering concepts; 
• Demonstration of enthusiasm for Science, Technology, and Engineering; 
• Encouragement to work on projects as a team effort; 
• Inspiration to use problem-solving skills; 
• Inspiration to become an effective communicator; and 
• Motivation through communication.

Each FIRST team completes a product development cycle as it designs a concept, develops a prototype, and builds and debugs a unique machine. This requires teamwork, attention to detail, scheduling, and hard work. The award-winning essay should answer this question; “How did the candidate inspire your team throughout this process?” If the judges determine the essay best describes how this individual inspires their team and mentors with integrity above others, then that mentor truly deserves to be recognized with the award that honors Professor Woodie Flowers and his contribution to engineering, education, and communication.

Entry Requirements

The students select an eligible mentor, enter reference information, and a maximum three thousand (3,000) character essay (this includes spaces, punctuation and line breaks) written in English. Eligible Mentors can be selected from a pull-down menu. Teams must upload one (1) headshot photo of the mentor alone and may also add up to to three (3) additional pictures, totaling no more than 1.0 MB of memory. This submission should be a team effort and will stand alone as the team’s entry to award their candidate the deserved recognition.

Entry Process

A student award submitter can enter their candidate through the FIRST Dashboard. The lead mentor 1 or 2 for each team must assign at least one (1) and up to two (2) student award submitters in the FIRST Dashboard. Check out the Instructions to assign an Awards Submitter if you need assistance. It is suggested that you begin gathering all required information before it is time to submit and type the nomination as a Text Document so that it is easier to edit and check the character limit. When finished, it can be pasted to the online submission.

As the student nominator fills out the required information, they must follow the directions listed on the screen.

Student nominators can easily enter information, save it, and return to the site to edit their entry information until they are ready to submit it for judging. All entries must be submitted between the dates listed in Submission Dates. No entries will be accepted or altered after this date.

Using the FIRST Dashboard, the student will enter information in the following fields:

• Team Number (Auto populated)
• Team Name (Auto populated)
• School (if affiliated) (Auto populated)
• Select an Eligible Mentor
  • First Name, Last Name (Auto populated)
  • Occupation
  • Position on team
  • Email Address (Auto populated)
• High School Student Nominator’s information: (Student recommending candidate)
  • First Name, Last Name (Auto populated)
• Adult Reference (Must Select an Eligible Mentor on the team)
  • Occupation
• Adult Reference (Any FIRST affiliation)
  • First Name, Last Name
  • Phone Number
  • E-mail Address
• Upload Pictures (1 required headshot photo of the mentor alone, up to (3) three additional photos, all photos no more than 1.0 MB total)
• Essay (Character max: 3,000) - Once candidates’ information and essays are submitted, they are sorted and posted on a private, password-protected site where only the judges can read the entries.

One mentor from each Regional event and mentor(s) from each District Championship will be selected for the 2024 Woodie Flowers Finalist Award.

Championship Woodie Flowers Award (WFA)

The Woodie Flowers Award celebrates effective communication in the art and science of engineering and design. Dr. William Murphy founded this prestigious award in 1996 to recognize mentors who lead, inspire and empower using excellent communication skills. The Woodie Flowers Award (WFA) is presented to one WFFA winner at the FIRST Championship.

Eligibility

The nominee must have received the WFFA during a previous year and be re-nominated by the mentor’s present team this season. The mentor could have received the award while on a different team. Teams having multiple WFFA recipients may only re-nominate one each year.

All Championship eligible WFFAs will receive a congratulatory email from the WFA group.

Award eligibility Requirements

All nominations must be made during the Official on-line WFA/WFFA submission period. Teams nominating a previous year WFFA winner must follow the relevant steps listed previously in the Entry Requirements and Entry Process. Reminder, this is a new “stand alone” submission, previous essay are not considered.

Judging Criteria

The judging criteria for the Championship Woodie Flowers Award is the same as the Woodie Flowers Finalist Award. However, it is considered a more competitive award since a single recipient is chosen from greater than 200 WFFA winners.

Best Practices in the essay:

1. Use only the first name of a student.
2. Limit abbreviations.
3. Define an Acronym.