by FIRST Robotics Competition Staff • October 10, 2024
It’s that time of year where we share award updates for the new season.
Removal of Rookie Inspiration and a New Award
We have decided to remove the Rookie Inspiration Award as having rookie-only awards does not help recognize all new teams. We also already have another award recognizing Rookies - the Rookie All Star Award.
With the removal of this award, we have created a new award – the Rising All-Star Award. This new award is focused on new beginnings as you can see in this description:
“Celebrates the team that has persisted through challenges, despite the difficulties of being young. This could be the result of being a new team, or a team with recent turnover in membership.”
This award will be optional meaning that it is not required to be presented at every event if the judges do not feel a competing team meets the criteria. You can see the full guidelines on the Team Attributes Award webpage.
FIRST ® Impact Award
The biggest change to the FIRST® Impact Award for this season is that the Executive Summary questions have been modified based on feedback from the Hall of Fame teams, some of our FIRST Impact Award judges, and our Global Judge Advisors*. Many of the questions remain unchanged or have minor edits but there are a few larger changes. Please review the updated questions on the Submitted Award Webpage and be sure to use these new updated questions when drafting your submission.
We also wanted to share a few reminders on the FIRST Impact Award:
- FIRST Impact Award Video - The only way to submit a FIRST Impact Award video is through the submission portal using one of the approved links.
- One thing that teams can consider doing is entering a link during the submission process that will later redirect to the FIRST Impact Award video. This allows teams more time to finish the video if they need or to continue to iterate on the video from event to event. One way to do this is using Google Drive and creating a folder and sharing that folder link in the submission. If you take this approach, there should only be one file in the folder at the event. See full details on video guidelines on the Submitted Award Webpage.
- Submission Criteria: Do not use the < or > characters within your submission. Using these characters may result in your submission not saving.
- Sibling Teams - If Sibling Teams plan to submit for the FIRST Impact Award, they should choose one of the following options:
- Only one of the teams submits for the FIRST Impact Award, or
- Each team can submit and should have different submissions and presentations
- Silent Observer – For years, we have allowed teams the option to have 1 silent adult observer. This adult observer allows teams to get feedback by relaying their observations to the team and questions that the judges had about the team, essay, and presentation. The judges appreciate this additional feedback avenue and it in no way penalizes the team. We encourage all teams to bring an adult observer.
- Additional Provided Material
- Teams are encouraged to show their FIRST Impact Award Documentation Form (editable Word doc – file automatically downloads) to the judges during the interview. Note that this is not a required form (i.e. you can still be eligible without this form) but providing it shows the judges that your activities are well planned and documented.
- Teams may also choose to provide additional materials to the judges to review, but it is strongly recommended that the materials are no larger than one 2" 3-ring binder (or equivalent volume if spiral wound). It’s also recommended that materials be in a single bound unit, and not as multiple handouts. Judges may not have time to review all material that is provided to them, but these materials do help them verify any additional questions they have. The binder should focus on the team’s activities going back no more than 4 seasons. Please do not try to document your team’s entire history in the materials given to judges.
Innovation in Control Award
We’re excited to announce that the Innovation in Control Award is now sponsored by nVent! Please note that there are no changes to the award guidelines or description.
Awards and Banners
This season, we are changing the Blue Banners to a canvas material rather than the vinyl material used in 2024. The material used prior to 2024 is no longer available and this material is thicker and will be less wrinkly than the vinyl material used in 2024. The pole pocket on the bottom will now be 2” and the sizing and spacing of the logo and text on the banners are also being adjusted.
Teams will be able to purchase additional banners and additional awards as needed. Please note that the new banner style will available for purchase in February 2025.
Additionally, here’s a sneak peek of what the 2025 Medallions will look like this year:
Award Resources
We also wanted to take this opportunity to remind teams of some great award resources that are available such as:
- Award Workbook – This resource contains the award descriptions and guidelines as well as suggested questions that judges may use during pit interviews. This document has been updated with other award changes detailed below.
- Best Practices for FIRST ® Robotics Competition Judged Awards - This resource includes tips for talking with judges in the pits as well as tips for the FIRST Impact Award and Dean’s List Award.
- Inside Look at the Judging Process – This document covers how the judging process works at events.
- Dean’s List Award Guide – This guide assists team in preparing for the submission and for participating in the Dean’s List Award interview. It contains information on the Dean’s List Award, best practices for writing the submission and preparing for the interview, and more!
- FIRST Impact Award Resources - This webpage contains multiple resources to help teams when submitting for the FIRST Impact Award including, previous winning team’s submissions, an FAQ on the award, and additional resources.
- In the spirit of being more transparent here are some resources that we have created for judges that we thought the community may also be interested in. The Judge Manual will also be made public on the Judge role description when it is available later this year.
- Technical Judging Tips – This resource was created to help technical judges know what to look for with respect to the machine, creativity, and innovation awards.
- FIRST Impact Award Judging Guidelines - A resource judges should use when reviewing and evaluating the submitted essays and discussing the interviews. This document helps add consistency and guide judges on picking the most qualified teams.
- Dean’s List Award Judging Guidelines - A resource judges should use when reviewing and evaluating the submitted essays and discussing the interviews. This document helps add consistency and guide judges on picking the most qualified students to win the FIRST Dean’s List Award.
*Global Judge Advisors is the new name for what we previously called our Chief Judge Advisors. We have renamed all of our Chief Roles to have “Global” in the title to align cross-program. This change also helps recognize the global impact these positions have across FIRST programs.
FIRST when it comes to listening to the community as of recently
So much good stuff in one post!
FRC Game Branding is so back.
Can we get a :regional-indicator-w: react specifically for blog posts as of late?
I really like the idea of the rising all-star award. Team growth and lifecycles can be so much more complex than the two phases previously recognized by FRC awards of “rookie” and “not rookie.”
Holy FLL crossover, batman!
Pretty exciting to see the changes to the Executive Summary questions in my opinion. The new versions are much more meaningful questions about actual impact and lend themselves to data more than before. Exciting stuff.
Also the section on Sibling Team submissions is a great first step towards acknowledging the awkwardness of the Awards process in general for double-or-triple numbered programs. I’d love to eventually see even more done there to explicitly allow for Programs (like ours!) to be able to confidently put forward a “this is for all of us, not just 111 or 112” type submission instead of trying to somehow parse out “who did what” when the answer is “everyone.”
Do we know what changes were made to the Impact Award Executive Summaries questions?
Is it time for @AllenGregoryIV to order a new banner for his comparisons? 
It provides a nice compliment to Team sustainability award, and can help build into teams winning that or impact award more in theory.
I wish they gave a preview of what the new banners looked like. Glad to see though that FIRST is listening to the community. @waialua359 got his wish for better banners though
And it’s still keeping the recognition of actual rookie teams with the Rookie All-Star award, which is important. It’s good that FIRST is trying to celebrate the transitions and developments of existing teams with the Rising All-Star award, a situation we really didn’t have a good way to recognize (and thus some of the complaints about giving the Rookie All-Star to teams that were only rookies in a technical sense as the judges tried to recognize the work of these transitioning teams.) At the same time, it now frees up the Rookie All-Star to be what it is supposed to be, a way to promote actual rookie teams that are doing the hard and difficult work of team formation from scratch. It’s always been a good thing that Rookie All-Star winners can get to Worlds, when that is almost impossible for them otherwise (or at least incredibly difficult.) It makes Worlds a much richer experience for everyone, as it should be.
The new questions are posted to the Submitted Awards page (included below, hidden, because they’re long). I don’t know where to easily see the old ones, but I imagine some teams who have submitted in the past have them handy and could share them.
New Question List
- Describe the impact of the FIRST program on team participants within the last 3 years. Think about percentages of those graduating high school, attending college, in STEM careers, leadership skills, and serving as mentors/sponsors in FIRST programs.
- Describe your community along with its unique opportunities and circumstances. Think about your geographic region, diversity of town/school, language barriers, socioeconomic barriers, and cultural expectations.
- Describe the team’s methods, with emphasis on the past 3 years, for spreading the FIRST mission in ways that are effective, scalable, sustainable, and creative.
- Describe your team’s goals and the progress you have made towards them to fulfill FIRST’s Vision.
- What impact has your team seen from your efforts described in the above question? How does your team measure impact?
- Please provide specific examples of how your team and team members act as role models for the FIRST community with emphasis on the past 3 years. How do you share these best practices with other teams?
- Describe your team’s initiatives to Assist, Mentor, and/or Start other FIRST teams with emphasis on activities within the past 3 years.
- What other initiatives have you created, grown, sustained, or participated in (FIRST or otherwise) to help inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators? What outcomes have you seen from your efforts in the past 3 years?
- Describe the partnerships and relationships that you’ve created with other organizations (teams, sponsors, educational institutions, government, philanthropic entities, etc.) and what you have accomplished together, with emphasis on the past 3 years.
- Describe your team’s efforts in the past 3 years to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion within your team, FIRST, and your communities.
- Explain how you ensure your team and the initiatives you have created will be sustainable.
- Highlight one area in which your team needs to improve and describe the steps actively being taken to make those improvements.
- Briefly describe other matters of interest to the FIRST Judges, including items that may not fit into the above topics. The judges are interested in learning about aspects of your team that may be unique, particularly noteworthy or had a large impact.
- (OPTIONAL) Please use this space to ask 1 question to your FIRST Impact Award Judges which will be answered after each event with feedback from the judges.
To help teams who may be unsure of what question to put in the optional feedback question, we have compiled a few options that teams may choose from:- Is there something more that we can do to improve our presentation?
- Is there anything missing from our submitted materials?
- Which outreach activity do you feel we execute most effectively?
Note: Questions asking what is required to win the award or inappropriate questions will not be answered.
Here is a breakdown of the changes to the Executive Summary
-
Describe the impact of the FIRST program on team participants within the last 3 years. (̶T̶h̶i̶s̶ c̶a̶n̶ i̶n̶c̶l̶u̶d̶e̶ b̶u̶t̶ i̶s̶ n̶o̶t̶ l̶i̶m̶i̶t̶e̶d̶ t̶o̶ p̶e̶r̶c̶e̶n̶t̶a̶g̶e̶s̶ o̶f̶ t̶h̶o̶s̶e̶ g̶r̶a̶d̶u̶a̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ h̶i̶g̶h̶ s̶c̶h̶o̶o̶l̶, a̶t̶t̶e̶n̶d̶i̶n̶g̶ c̶o̶l̶l̶e̶g̶e̶, i̶n̶ S̶T̶E̶M̶ c̶a̶r̶e̶e̶r̶s̶, a̶n̶d̶ i̶n̶ F̶I̶R̶S̶T̶ p̶r̶o̶g̶r̶a̶m̶s̶ a̶s̶ m̶e̶n̶t̶o̶r̶s̶/s̶p̶o̶n̶s̶o̶r̶s̶.)̶ Think about percentages of those graduating high school, attending college, in STEM careers, leadership skills, and serving as mentors/sponsors in FIRST programs.
-
Describe your community along with h̶o̶w̶ y̶o̶u̶r̶ t̶e̶a̶m̶ a̶d̶d̶r̶e̶s̶s̶e̶s̶ its unique opportunities and circumstances. Think about your geographic region, diversity of town/school, language barriers, socioeconomic barriers, and cultural expectations.
-
Describe the team’s methods, with emphasis on the past 3 years, for spreading the FIRST message in ways that are effective, scalable, sustainable, and creative. H̶o̶w̶ d̶o̶e̶s̶ y̶o̶u̶r̶ t̶e̶a̶m̶ m̶e̶a̶s̶u̶r̶e̶ r̶e̶s̶u̶l̶t̶s̶?̶
-
(Moved up in question order) Describe your team’s goals t̶o̶ f̶u̶l̶f̶i̶l̶l̶ t̶h̶e̶ m̶i̶s̶s̶i̶o̶n̶ o̶f̶ F̶I̶R̶S̶T̶ and the progress you have made towards t̶h̶o̶s̶e̶ g̶o̶a̶l̶s̶. them to fulfill FIRST’s Vision.
-
What impact has your team seen from your efforts described in the above question? How does your team measure impact?
-
Please provide specific examples of how your team and team members act as role models w̶i̶t̶h̶i̶n̶ for the FIRST community with emphasis on the past 3 years. How do you share these best practices with other teams?
-
(Unchanged) Describe your team’s initiatives to Assist, Mentor, and/or Start other FIRST teams with emphasis on activities within the past 3 years.
-
B̶e̶y̶o̶n̶d̶ s̶t̶a̶r̶t̶i̶n̶g̶ t̶e̶a̶m̶s̶, what other initiatives have you d̶o̶n̶e̶ created, grown, sustained, or participated in (FIRST or otherwise) to help inspire young people to be science and technology leaders and innovators? What r̶e̶s̶u̶l̶t̶s̶ outcomes have you seen from your efforts in the past 3 years?
-
Describe the partnerships and relationships that you’ve created with other organizations (teams, sponsors, educational institutions, government, philanthropic entities, etc.) and what you have accomplished together with emphasis on the past 3 years
-
(Unchanged) Describe your team’s efforts in the past 3 years to promote equity, diversity, and inclusion within your team, FIRST, and your communities.
-
Explain how you ensure your team and the initiatives you have created will c̶o̶n̶t̶i̶n̶u̶e̶ t̶o̶ r̶u̶n̶ e̶f̶f̶e̶c̶t̶i̶v̶e̶l̶y̶ f̶o̶r̶ t̶h̶e̶ f̶o̶r̶e̶s̶e̶e̶a̶b̶l̶e̶ f̶u̶t̶u̶r̶e̶ be sustainable.
-
(Removed) D̶e̶s̶c̶r̶i̶b̶e̶ y̶o̶u̶r̶ t̶e̶a̶m̶’s̶ i̶n̶n̶o̶v̶a̶t̶i̶v̶e̶ s̶t̶r̶a̶t̶e̶g̶i̶e̶s̶ t̶o̶ r̶e̶c̶r̶u̶i̶t̶, r̶e̶t̶a̶i̶n̶, a̶n̶d̶ e̶n̶g̶a̶g̶e̶ y̶o̶u̶r̶ s̶p̶o̶n̶s̶o̶r̶s̶ w̶i̶t̶h̶i̶n̶ t̶h̶e̶ p̶a̶s̶t̶ 3̶ y̶e̶a̶r̶s̶
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(Unchanged) Highlight one area in which your team needs to improve and describe the steps actively being taken to make those improvements.
-
Briefly describe other matters of interest to the FIRST Judges, including items that may not fit into the above topics. The judges are interested in learning about aspects of your team that may be unique or particularly noteworthy or had a large impact.
-
Please use this space to ask 1 question to your FIRST Impact Award Judges which will be answered after each event with feedback from the judges (250 characters maximum). To help teams who may be unsure of what question to put in the optional feedback question, we have compiled a few options that teams may choose from:
Is there something more that we can do to improve our presentation?
Is there anything missing from our submitted materials?
Which outreach activity do you feel we execute most effectively?
Note: Questions asking what is required to win the award or inappropriate questions will not be answered.
I would have posted a link to the Internet Archive version of the page but… 
Interesting to see this question removed. It seems the connection of FIA to sponsor relationships as it was originally developed is now “fully” gone. (also glad very difficult question to answer)
This is probably my second favorite recent update! Nice to see feedbacks being heard more and more!
I just don’t know how to feel about the medal design. Felt kinda awkward for a round medal.
Hopefully the Reefscape game pin will be good unlike 2024…
I really appreciate how these changes reflect feedback from the community, especially regarding banners.
Also a big fan of the new Rising All-Star Award. I hope judges will be able to recognize teams such as our second all-freshmen team who are sometimes overlooked due to being sibling teams.