Make FIRST Core Values Part of Team Meetings

Values become useful when they shape observable behaviour. During a FIRST robotics meeting, Gracious Professionalism is visible when students listen, handle disagreement and support a beginner; Inspiration appears in bold questions and a willingness to try an idea. The same standard can guide teams in FIRST Robotics Competition, FIRST Tech Challenge, FIRST LEGO League and Jr.FLL across ages 4 to 18.

Incorporating FIRST Core Values into team meetings involves more than just lectures or poster displays. It is a repeatable cycle that helps young people make decisions, understand the effect of their conduct and improve the next build, programming task or outreach activity. The result is a team culture in which values are heard in one another’s choices.

Turn values into observable habits

The six FIRST Core Values—Inspiration, Integrity, Innovation, Cooperation, Sustainability and Gracious Professionalism—need plain-language indicators. Ask what someone did and how it supported the value. Integrity might mean recording a failed test accurately; Innovation might mean testing a simple mechanism before investing in a complex one; Cooperation might mean pairing a returning student with a newcomer.

Translate each focus value into behaviour a mentor can observe. Inspiration encourages participation and curiosity, independent of the loudest personality. Sustainability covers efficient use of materials, battery care, reusable components and durable team processes. Gracious Professionalism covers punctuality, respect, safe conduct and welcoming visitors. For Jr.FLL, use short actions such as “share the tools” or “listen before deciding”; older teams can connect the same values to design reviews, code changes and competition conduct.

Build a meeting rhythm people can follow

A 60- to 90-minute rhythm works well for many school-based teams, although age and season matter more than the clock. Share a one-page agenda before the session: the goal, decisions required, materials needed, any safety issue and the value focus. Open with a short check-in, a reminder of the outcome and a check that everyone has a role.

Then run one or two focused work periods. Rotate a facilitator, timekeeper, safety checker, inclusion observer and documenter so leadership is distributed without overwhelming students. A mentor can handle technical barriers while students own the workflow. Maryland FIRST’s volunteer pathways illustrates how clear support roles can be advertised; local teams can achieve the same by naming a mentor, coach or industry volunteer before the meeting.

Close every gathering with a values-based debrief. Invite each person to name a helpful action, a difficult moment and one adjustment. Record decisions, owners, due dates and unresolved safety or inclusion concerns. Appreciation comes before announcements, while the final two minutes confirm what will happen at the next session.

Use stories and evidence in reflection

Reflection should be evidence-based rather than a generic round of “good jobs”. Use engineering notebooks, CAD files, code commits, test logs, attendance records and peer-feedback notes. Prompts can include: Which decision improved safety or sustainability? Whose idea was built upon? Where did we make an assumption? Did competition behaviour represent the standard we want at school?

Youth teams also learn values by explaining their work. A design group can connect a lightweight chassis to Sustainability, while a programming group can describe a documented fallback as Integrity. Avoid rewarding only awards or robot performance. Recognise the student who asked for help, protected a team member, found a fault early or changed the plan after respectful feedback.

Maryland FIRST’s account of student lead mentoring offers a useful leadership model. Give student leads a goal, decision boundary, mentor check-in and review of outcomes rather than giving them unrestricted authority. This makes responsibility grow with capability and shows that Gracious Professionalism applies to adults, mentors and students alike.

Design for inclusion in Australian teams

Teams in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane often meet in school rooms, libraries or community centres after class. Build calendars around school terms, public holidays, examination periods, part-time jobs and family transport. A Saturday build may suit one week; a 20-minute remote check-in may prevent a lost part from blocking another week.

Regional and outer-metropolitan teams can face long travel distances and freight delays. Teams around Perth, Cairns and regional Victoria or New South Wales can use shared online documents, short video calls and a nominated parts runner, while reserving face-to-face time for fabrication and troubleshooting. Remote participation should be structured: ask for input in advance, share an accessible agenda and capture decisions centrally rather than allowing side conversations to exclude others.

Local purchasing shapes the same habits. Australian teams may combine Bunnings and Mitre 10 materials, Officeworks supplies and local makerspaces, but should budget in Australian dollars, allow for GST and confirm product availability before assigning fabrication. Makerspaces and community partners may have insurance, induction and supervision rules. When welcoming students from different backgrounds, follow the host school’s protocols and, where relevant, local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community guidance.

Clarify roles, safety and accountability

Before build work begins, assign roles for safe operation, data collection, photography consent and documentation. The Privacy Act 1988 and Australian Privacy Principles may apply when a team stores student email addresses, images, medical information or emergency contacts in project tools; collect only necessary information, restrict access and delete it when no longer needed. State workplace health and safety laws, school risk assessments and battery or electrical rules also apply according to the team’s location and structure.

Mentors should make conflict resolution predictable: pause the activity, restate the concern, seek evidence, invite the affected person’s view, decide and record the action. A student can raise a Gracious Professionalism concern without risking their place on the team. The internship programme model from African Film Producers offers a transferable example through written rotations, named supervisors, midpoint discussions and end-of-programme feedback. FIRST teams can adapt that discipline so every young member knows who supports them and where to raise a concern.

Recognise progress and keep improving

Recognition should name the behaviour and its effect, rather than declaring someone the “best” team member. A specific thank-you is more useful than praise aimed at the whole group, because it gives the team a behaviour to repeat. Keep a simple record of actions that strengthened cooperation, integrity or community inclusion.

Practise the following routines consistently rather than attempting to cover every value in every meeting. One or two focused values create a sharper opportunity to notice and reinforce behaviour.

• Put one or two value focuses near the top of each agenda, with a final prompt asking what changed.
• Rotate meeting roles among students and pair each with clearly named mentor support.
• Invite input in round-robin form before open discussion so quieter voices are not lost.
• Review test results, errors and team decisions without blaming the individual who reported them.
• Record an owner and due date for every follow-up action.
• Recognise helpful behaviour promptly and connect recognition to an observed example.

Review these habits at the end of each competition season or after four meetings. A short team survey can ask whether people feel safe to disagree, know what Integrity means in practice and can see how decisions improve. Use the results to change the meeting format, rather than ranking students.

These comparisons provide prompts for discussion instead of pass-or-fail scores. Choose one routine to strengthen before adding another.

Meeting moment	Surface-level practice	Values-led practice	Evidence to keep
Opening	Read a long update	State the goal, check access and invite a check-in	Shared goal and resolved support needs
Planning	Assign people to tasks	Clarify ownership, dependencies and opportunities to contribute	Role notes and dependencies
Debrief	Praise a winner	Examine evidence, impact and opportunities for growth	Logged example and next experiment
Conflict	Avoid it or escalate quickly	Pause, listen, decide and record	Agreed resolution and follow-up
Closing	Announce the next meeting	Confirm actions, appreciation and support	Action owners and due dates

Put the values into action this week

Start with one 20-minute huddle at the next team meeting. Choose a single value focus, ask students to identify one observable behaviour, assign roles and end with two documented actions. The same routine can be scaled for a busy build night or a short Jr.FLL session.

Make the commitment now: book the huddle, assign its roles and protect its closing debrief, recording one change to carry into the next session. Make that meeting the point where a stated value changes what the team actually does.