I was just informed that they are looking to fund projects that are less than $2,000. If yours is higher than that, go in and scale it back quickly! Also if you are not a full-time teacher at the public school or public charter where your school is located, find a teacher there who is. I asked and was told it’s fine for them to set up your project. Again just be sure to put FIRST Robotics Competition in the description as much as possible. Thanks! Gail Alpert gail@firstinmichigan.org 248-425-4148   The MDE grant is a bit behind as they are moving to a newRead More →

As part of Careers in Energy Week, DTE has put out several challenges that allow your team to win up to $1,500. But you have to hurry. The challenge ends at 12:01 AM Oct 21! You can find all the details on our facebook page https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=2037137759770845&id=145679775583329 Challenge 1- ROBOTICS ROCKS! Make a short video pitch (can use a cell phone) on Why FIRST Robotics Rocks! 30 second- 1 minute long 1st place $1,500 2nd place $1,000 3rd place $500 Form and details here https://forms.office.com/pages/responsepage.aspx?id=_tVhjkl3dk6I7m2Hma6BQ87cDz3ZAshJhENPkLJLAltUN0ZFUlNMMlE3UTk5TVU1SDRWNjVDOEkwWS4u&fbclid=IwAR3AwSrdq-zEA9yaIfvz58b49JQz7d2D3hwALPf5_JBbcpu0Sr9T-lTxksg Challenge 2- DTE COMMUNITY FIRST TEAM AWARD Mentor on your team that is a current or retired DTE employee nominates yourRead More →

FIRST EVENT PREFERENCING This Thursday at noon you can create a list of your choices for your first event right in your dashboard. Keep in mind, whatever events you put on this list are JUST FOR THE FIRST event, not the second. This list has no bearing on your second event picks. You will create a second event list on Oct 21 which might or might not be the same! GET EVENT READY TO PREFERENCE Before you can create a preference list for your first event, you will need to clear all of the outstanding tasks in your dashboard. This includes updating your YPP ifRead More →

Our District Awards Ceremony will be this coming Saturday, April 10 at 2:00 pm on Twitch. These are the awards that will be announced- Dean’s List Semi-Finalists District Level Chairman’s Award Here are the specifics: What-   District Award Ceremony When-   Saturday, April 10, 2021 Time-   2:00 pm Where-  www.twitch.tv/firstinmi01 Save Saturday, May 15, 2021, too, for the State Awards at the same time and place! Keep in mind, we post all of our FRC email blasts on the firstinmichigan.org website under “Resources” on the FRC page. Best Regards, Gail Alpert 248-425-4148Read More →

If you missed the deadline in March for submitting for ANY of the challenges, you can still submit for the skills challenge and keep your State MDE funds! Submissions are due by: APRIL 8 AT 3:00PM (no extensions) Please let me know if you plan to do that by filling out this simple form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScpxRRhloSfRid9sPV_aRQQJ6-eK94XA0ePTy0YuL47pbe-dA/viewform If you don’t think you will make it, please call me right after filling out the form. Here is most of what you need to know: Teams will not be interviewed and will not be eligible for awards  You will be placed into the Samarium group  Every team is eligible to participateRead More →

We are thrilled to announce the second Dream Maker FREE webinar taking place on Feb 23. The topic is Building a College and Career Action Plan. Students and their parents will have the opportunity to meet with a trained advisor from the College and Career Access Center of Jackson. The webinar will walk you through options like college and trade schools. Then attendees may ask questions as they are building their own personalized plan for the future. Here are the details- What-   Building a College and Career Action Plan When-   Feb 23, 7:00-8:00 pm Who-    All parents and FIRST students Details and Registration- https://zoom.us/webinar/register/4016135881456/WN_cSAA-uuBRm2LmnZveBirxQRead More →

I have been getting a lot of emails asking about where you submit, when you submit, when winners are announced etc. So I decided to make a handy, one-stop spreadsheet for you. You can find it here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vSiwgcRGSddQTmWVIQGEvY3fp9RCoNpggvPWIagRgXnhpwi9MzbvhZwFL5uyhSnS9tDGmU_ke3F-pag/pubhtml Hope you find it useful! Gail Alpert 248-425-4148 gail@firstinmichigan.orgRead More →

I am excited to announce that our incredible sponsor, MAGNA, has agreed to provide a ROMI robot kit to each and every Michigan FRC team!!!! This is a FABULOUS tool to learn to program. The small robot comes complete with sensors and uses the exact same FIRST software and WPI libraries that are used to program your competition robot. The kit will have everything you need: The Romi The Raspberry Pi (3B+) Micro SD card 6 batteries You can learn more about it here. https://www.pololu.com/product/4022 and more details here: https://docs.wpilib.org/en/stable/docs/romi-robot/getting-to-know-romi.html I placed the order for the Romi yesterday and will order the Raspberry Pi, microRead More →

Hey everyone, Just wanted to share a link to our FAFSA webinar. Heidi, thank you again for stopping by, hope you enjoyed it! https://youtu.be/C-8PeEwGwxE Thanks, Jack Nowakowski Director – Dream Maker InitiativeRead More →

Many teams inquired as to the breakdown between team support and stipends in the grant award from the MDE. Use this link to see the breakdown- https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/e/2PACX-1vQSFcEbHeNudPXuBSBLsnh-ZC9DOUQVUbX8xDl4xeMprJPA2n2rcxLGrqxCnb8tvT3wSnPUq4QUzH42/pubhtml Again, you can find your award here- https://www.techplan.org/edtech-initiatives/rdi/first-robotics/ Thanks! All the best, Gail Alpert 248 425-4148 cell gail.alpert@gmail.comRead More →