Their ‘FIRST’ robotics kit

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Members of the Baldwin High School Robotics team received their kit and parts  from FIRST Long Island last week.

Baldwin High School students attended this year’s kickoff event for the 2023 FIRST Robotics Competition, sponsored by FIRST Long Island and hosted by LIU Post on Jan. 7., where they gathered with more than 40 participating high schools at LIU Post’s Krasnoff Theater for a presentation.

Each team received a kit of parts, which they will use, along with other materials, to build a 120 pound robot for the upcoming competition taking place on March 20 at Hofstra University.

With support from over 200 of the Fortune 500 companies and more than $50 million in college scholarships, the non-profit organization hosts the FIRST Robotics Competition for students in from freshman to senior year, the FIRST Tech Challenge for grades 7 to 12, and FIRST LEGO League from Pre-K to eighth grade. 

FIRST Long Island is a fully volunteer-run non-profit organization founded in 1984 by Fred Breithut with the goal of developing partnerships between local high schools and businesses, to provide students with practical experience and curriculum development, while helping the business community develops its future workforce.

In 1999, the inaugural FIRST Long Island robotics tournament featured just eight FIRST Robotics Competition high school teams. Since then, the Long Island Regional FIRST Robotics Competition has grown into two events, with over 80 competing teams. 

FIRST Long Island also hosts its annual FIRST LEGO League Qualifying and Championship Tournaments and the FIRST LEGO League Junior Expos, where over 2,000 elementary and middle school students from Nassau and Suffolk Counties take part each year. In 2016, the FIRST Tech Challenge was added to its roster of programs.