FIRST Robotics Competition and FIRST LEGO League
FIRST runs a set of programs aimed at different age groups, with FIRST LEGO League built around younger students using LEGO-based robotics kits to solve a themed challenge each season, and the FIRST Robotics Competition (FRC) aimed at high schoolers building full-size robots, often several feet across, to compete in a new game revealed at the start of each season. FRC teams typically get a fixed, tightly limited build window to design, construct, and program a robot from a standard kit of parts and their own custom components before competition events begin, which forces the same kind of deadline-driven engineering discipline that makes any competition effective as a teaching tool.
A distinctive feature of FIRST is how much it emphasizes mentorship and teamwork alongside the engineering itself. Teams commonly pair students with engineers and other professional mentors from local companies, and the program explicitly frames the experience as being as much about collaboration, project management, and communication skills as it is about the robot itself.