The FIRST and Enable Story
Our team at Enable Education has always been a huge fan of FIRST Robotics. Their mission, their values, the fun and learning baked into all of their competitions, their drive for innovation, inclusivity, and their practice of “gracious professionalism”, are all things we hold dear, too.
This alignment of core values is something we've been thinking about a lot. The mission of FIRST has always resonated with us because it is not just about building robots; it’s about using robotics as a vehicle for holistic, collaborative learning.
Amy and Ben recently discussed this very topic on their podcast, Unfinished Minds. In a special excerpt from an episode on tech education, they reflected on a pivotal insight someone shared years ago: the goal is not simply to teach about robotics, but to teach with robotics.
This powerful idea, that a robot can be a tool to explore dance, music, social studies, and complex community problems, is at the heart of why they’ve always admired the program. As they discuss in the clip, the competitions create a "microcosm of a community," an inclusive space where every participant, regardless of their specific inclination, can find a valuable role.
This deep connection to their mission is why Enable’s involvement with FIRST reaches back to the very beginning of our time as a company, when our founder, Ben Zimmer, just wanted to help a local team. Ben volunteered to teach them how to incorporate a new (to them) software system into their builds. Seeing the students on that team thrive was a joy unto itself, but we wanted to do more, to make it even easier for all kinds of participants to get involved, so we started reconfiguring some of our professional training videos for younger users.
As luck would have it, FIRST competitors and mentors liked watching our videos as much as we liked making them, and there began a relationship with FIRST that’s lasted over almost two decades.
In our time working with FIRST, we’ve partnered to create:
A FIRST friendly version of our learning platform Thinkscape, with mobile friendly, customizable, digital material for both learners and educators, curriculum and ecommerce.
An “Introduction to Robotics” curriculum.
The FIRST Tech Challenge Class Pack for in-class delivery, to support teams with limited access to technology, transportation, and mentors.
Supporting partnerships with countries like Australia, Canada, and Qatar.
Professional development resources for educators.
High impact training modules for FIRST volunteers, coaches, and mentors - known as FIRST Champions.
It’s hard to put into words how much our time working with FIRST has meant to us. It’s been our pleasure to help make these kinds of technical and teamwork experiences accessible and enjoyable for so many young minds. Working on these materials and platforms has also allowed us to grow as a company, and to make connections to all kinds of organizations around the world.
Our partnership with FIRST has given us a front row seat to their evolution as an organization, and FIRST is now integrating into the Thought Industries LMS, and moving out of Thinkscape. It seems like a good time to reflect and celebrate all that Enable and FIRST have accomplished together.
We are grateful for all we’ve learned and experienced over the years, and can’t wait to see what comes next for FIRST.