Well, veteran students call it “the hardest fun you’ll ever have!” It’s an international competition that fosters creativity, community, problem-solving, and service through designing, building, programming, testing, and operating real robots that compete in an alliance format competition against other teams. But calling it just a robotics competition would be doing it a disservice. Fielding a successful team also requires learning business and entrepreneurial skills such as fundraising, marketing, special events, community outreach, and budgeting. The atmosphere is more like a tech startup than just a robotics team. You can find more information at the following link: https://www.firstinspires.org/robotics/ftc

One of the great things about FIRST is the culture that it fosters. Concepts such as “gracious professionalism” and “coopertition” are emphasized and encouraged. While competition can be intense, there is a camaraderie and willingness to help that crosses team lines and infuses every FIRST activity. Students often help other teams, participate in community outreach events together, and support one another throughout the season. Respect for each other’s abilities and differences are on full display. These are behaviors and attitudes that are needed for success in life as well as FIRST Tech Challenge!

Each season officially begins when the competition game rules are released to the general public in early- to mid-September. After game release, students are asked to commit to a team and pay the annual team dues (see “Cost” section below). In North Carolina, there are state regional qualifying tournaments held in January and February, which is when the robots need to be ready to compete. If a team qualifies at one of these tournaments for the North Carolina State Championship tournament, that will be held in late February or early March in Greensboro. Of the 36 or so teams that will compete at the NC State Championship tournament, only 2 - 4 will qualify for the FIRST World Championship Tournament, which will be held in Houston, Texas in April.

Biome Robotics annual team dues vary from year-to-year but have never exceeded $400 per student. This provides a ‘bare bones’ baseline budget for each team which will cover a basic robot build, tournament fees, and annual registration fees. However, fundraising will also be conducted by the teams to help cover any additional robot parts, services, and team apparel. Also, the farther a team progresses beyond regional qualifying tournaments, the more expenses will be incurred for travel and tournament fees but this only becomes significant if a team goes to World Championships in Houston, TX. It should be noted that we’ve never had a parent or family member complain about the cost because the value of the experience far outweighs it. 

FIRST rules state that the minimum number of FTC student team members is 1, and the maximum is 15. From experience, we believe one of the most important factors impacting how much students get from the program is the coach-to-student ratio. The ideal ratio is one coach for every two students. This allows coaches the time necessary to introduce and teach important concepts and skills to new students, and mentor and guide the veteran students on both technical and leadership skills. Therefore, our membership is limited by the number of coaches. By rule, FTC students must be in grades 7-12 at the beginning of the season (September). So that translates to roughly ages 12-18.

Our team roster is currently at the maximum allowed by FTC rules. Therefore, we are not accepting new members at this time. Please send an email to info@biome-robotics.org if you would like to be put on our waitlist or if your parent/guardian would like more information about being a coach to facilitate their student joining a team.