WHAT IF WE CELEBRATED STEM THE WAY WE CELEBRATE ATHLETICS? WELCOME TO THE SPORT WHERE EVERY KID CAN GO PRO.
The FIRST Global Challenge is an olympics-style, international robotics competition that takes place in a different country each year. FIRST Global invites each nation to send a team to build and program a robot to compete. Teams work together to complete tasks in a game themed around one of the greatest challenges facing our planet, including the 14 Grand Challenges for Engineering, in an effort to foster understanding and cooperation among the youth of the world as they use their abilities to solve the world’s problems. The challenges we face as a global society need to be solved, and the next generation can meet the task — together.
THE 2021 FIRST GLOBAL CHALLENGE: DISCOVER & RECOVER
In the past year we have all been touched by difficult challenges in various aspects of our lives as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, this time has also shown that STEM provides critical answers to COVID-19 and other major events. In that spirit, the 2021 FIRST Global Challenge focuses on advancing new ways STEM can prioritize practical solutions and counter the effects of the problems youth and their communities continue to face across the world. The virtual Challenge runs for 12 weeks and consists of three main components.2021 Challenge Manual
The Solutions Challenge is the main component of the season, and provides an exciting opportunity for teams to turn their STEM skills into real-world application for the benefit of their countries. Under the theme of “Discover & Recover,” teams are tasked with identifying a pandemic-related problem in their community in the area of education, environment, health, or economy, and then creating a project to solve it using STEM within the span of the season.
Phase 1
(27 June to 7 August 2021)
Each team has six weeks to come up with a STEM solution to the problem they identified. Teams should utilize the engineering design process and spend time researching, brainstorming, planning, prototyping, and executing their solution (if possible), going from an idea to a fully-thought-out and actionable plan.
Phase 2
(8 August to 21 August 2021)
Teams have two weeks to form alliances with teams from other continents working in the same category.
Phase 3
(22 August to 18 September 2021)
Each alliance has four weeks to work together to create one unified solution.