FIRST Robotics ProgramsFIRST LEGO League / FIRST Tech Challenge / FIRST Robotics Competition

By age and capacity. Grades K-8: FIRST LEGO League, LEGO-based, low cost and quick to start. Grades 7-12: FIRST Tech Challenge, where students design a metal robot and write autonomous code, at $350 season registration — the mainstream secondary-school choice. Grades 9-12 with reliable mentors, a workspace and sponsorship: FIRST Robotics Competition, which starts at $6,500 in season registration before hardware and travel. Many families follow the full FLL to FTC to FRC path over several years.

Yes. FIRST states that BIOGLOW in 2026-27 is the final FIRST LEGO League season: the FIRST and LEGO Education partnership is not being renewed, and LEGO Education has announced its own LEGO League program launching in 2027. FLL is still worth joining for upper-elementary students, since it remains the most accessible complete robotics introduction — but decide the next step at the same time, such as moving into FTC or VEX IQ/V5 around grades 6-7 so there is no gap.

FIRST's published 2026-27 season registration: FIRST LEGO League Explore $150 and Challenge $285 (game kit $105 extra); FIRST Tech Challenge $350, with FIRST estimating around $1,500 for hardware; FIRST Robotics Competition $6,500, which includes one or two events depending on whether your area runs a regional or district model. Local event fees are set separately by regional partners, and travel, materials and team apparel are extra.

Yes, FRC registration closes long before kickoff. For 2026-27, all registrations and first-event payment were due November 17, 2026, while the FRC game, BIOCORE, is not revealed until kickoff on January 9, 2027. For an Irvine family aiming at FRC, that means locking in the team, workspace, mentors and budget during the fall semester and lining that up with a student's own school workload, since no one learns what they will actually build until January.

Yes, you can start one. FIRST teams are not limited to schools: out-of-school programs, community groups and homeschool groups register through the FIRST Dashboard and receive an official team number; this page lists which Irvine public high schools already have a FIRST-affiliated club, and a school not listed there is not excluded. The real constraint is resources, not eligibility — FTC needs hardware and a mentor with mechanical or coding experience, while FRC also needs a workshop, tools and school or corporate sponsorship. Starting with FTC and completing one full season first is the sane path.

The whole season shares a biodiversity theme, FIRST CANOPY. FLL's challenge is BIOGLOW, released August 4, 2026; FTC's is BIOBUZZ presented by RTX, kicked off September 12, 2026; FRC's is BIOCORE presented by Haas, revealed at kickoff on January 9, 2027. FRC district and regional events run March 3 to April 18, 2027, and the FIRST Championship is in Houston, April 28 to May 1, 2027.

No. FLL's top honour is the Champion's Award, FTC's is the Inspire Award, and FRC's is the FIRST Impact Award (formerly the Chairman's Award). All three assess how a team does outreach, fundraising, sustainability and mentoring of new teams, judged from season-long evidence plus an interview — they cannot be assembled in the last two weeks. Treat that storyline as a main thread from the first week of the season.

Three ways. FIRST maintains a scholarship catalogue with hundreds of partner institutions open to FTC and FRC participants. The judging logic behind the Impact and Inspire Awards maps directly onto the impact and leadership dimensions colleges weigh, so those wins carry weight in essays and recommendations. And a season generates concrete material — the mechanism that failed seven times before it worked, bringing three rookies up to speed, raising sponsorship in four weeks. Specifics persuade readers more than an award name.