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Mississippi FIRST® Tech Challenge Program

Building a better world by engaging students in STEM.

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Inspiring Students Through STEM and Robotics

Enterprise VictoryThe Center for Mathematics and Science Education at the University of Mississippi is proud to be the program partner for the Mississippi FIRST® Tech Challenge robotics program since 2012.

We are a statewide community focused on building a better world for tomorrow by engaging students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) while they design, build, and compete with robots in an annual challenge.

FIRST® Tech Challenge teaches students in grades 7-12 the value of hard work, innovation, creativity, and teamwork.

What is the FIRST Tech Challenge?

It’s way more than building robots. FIRST Tech Challenge teams (team members aged 12-18) are challenged to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head competition in an alliance format. Participants call it “the hardest fun you’ll ever have!”

  • Guided by adult coaches and mentors, students develop STEM skills and practice engineering principles, while realizing the value of hard work, innovation, and working as a team. The robot kit is reusable from year-to-year and can be coded using a variety of levels of Java-based programming.

Teams design and build robots, raise funds, design and market their team brand, and do community outreach to earn specific awards. Participants are eligible to apply for over $80M in college scholarships throughout the country.

Driving Robots

 

Wondering What the Hype is About?

The Mississippi FIRST® Tech Challenge program is a lot of things. It's exciting, creative, challenging, and fun. But it's so much more than that. 

Check out our video to get a better idea of what all the hype is about.

 

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Center for Mathematics and Science Education

The Center for Mathematics and Science works to improve mathematics and science education in Mississippi by fostering interaction between academic and K-12 communities, support the implementation of research-based methods in the classroom, and promote interest in the fields of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).