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Entry Path stones 1-3: merged voice + substance from both drafts

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Stone 1: FIRST Overview — Dean Kamen origin, 4 programs, Gracious Professionalism (Woodie Flowers), Coopertition, Invention+Innovation, season timeline, match breakdown (15s auto/2min teleop/30s end game), championship structure

Stone 2: 2890 Our Story — Collective name origin, four eras (2009 founding through present), students run this, roles table, expectations, team beliefs, gear list (MK4i/NEO Vortex/SPARK Flex/PhotonVision)

Stone 3: Youth Safety — why this matters, non-negotiables, tool-specific rules with 'what kills people' framing (lathe/mill/drill press/welder/grinder/band saw), electrical safety, FIRST Youth Protection (two-deep, background checks, communication), consequences table, 7-item pre-shop checklist

All in young mentor/alumni voice, full content, complete
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training/modules/first-robotics-overview.md
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## What Is FIRST
FIRST stands for **For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology**. It was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen — an inventor best known for the Segway, but more importantly, a guy who looked at American culture and decided that kids needed to see engineers as heroes, not nerds.
FIRST stands for **For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology**. It was founded in 1989 by Dean Kamen — an inventor best known for the Segway, but more importantly, a guy who looked at American culture and decided that kids needed to see engineering as something worth doing, something heroic.
The problem Kamen saw: science and tech were being taught as abstract, boring, solo work done by people who didn't know how to talk to anyone. Meanwhile, athletics got all the glory — the team jerseys, the pep rallies, the crowd cheering. He thought, why can't building a robot feel like that? Why can't engineering be just as exciting, just as celebrated?
Kamen's problem was simple: science and tech were being taught as abstract, boring, solo work done by people who couldn't talk to anyone. Athletics got all the glory — the team jerseys, the pep rallies, the crowd cheering. He thought, why can't building a robot feel like that? Why can't engineering be just as exciting, just as celebrated?
So he built FIRST. And it changed everything.
@@ -37,15 +37,15 @@ There are four programs under the FIRST umbrella:
We're FRC. 3,000+ teams worldwide. The biggest robotics competition for high school students that exists.
If you've never seen an FRC match, stop reading this and watch one. Search "FRC 2026 match" on YouTube. Watch three minutes. Then come back. It'll make everything else on this page make sense.
If you've never seen an FRC match, stop reading this and watch one. Search "FRC match" on YouTube. Watch three minutes. Then come back. It'll make everything else on this page make sense.
## Why FIRST Exists
Here's the uncomfortable truth about how most schools work: you learn something, you take a test, you forget it. The system is built for compliance and individual performance. Collaboration is a footnote. Failure is something to avoid, not learn from.
Here's the uncomfortable truth about how most school works: you learn something, you take a test, you forget it. The system is built for compliance and individual performance. Collaboration is a footnote. Failure is something to avoid, not learn from.
FIRST is the opposite.
In FIRST, you will fail. I'm not being negative — I'm being honest. Your first prototype will break. Your code won't work the first time. Your robot will do something embarrassing at your first competition. This is not a bug. This is the entire point.
You will fail. I'm not being negative — I'm being honest. Your first prototype will break. Your code won't work the first time. Your robot will do something embarrassing at your first competition. This is not a bug. This is the entire point.
The work is hard. The problems are new every year. The deadline is always coming. You have to work with people who have different skills than you. You have to ask for help and give help. You have to learn to lose without quitting and win without being insufferable.
@@ -69,9 +69,9 @@ This sounds soft until you see it in action. Watch an FRC match where two robots
### Coopertition™
Cooperate + competition. You can compete fiercely and still work with other teams. In FRC tournaments, teams form **alliances** of three robots for each match. That means you're often working with teams you just met, who might be your competitors in a later round.
Coopertition means: cooperate + competition. You can compete fiercely and still work with other teams. In FRC tournaments, teams form **alliances** of three robots for each match. That means you're often working with teams you just met, who might be your competitors in a later round.
It sounds contradictory. It's not. It's how the real world works. You can have strong opinions about a competitor and still find ways to collaborate when it matters.
It sounds contradictory until you see it in action. Watch alliance selection at a big event — top teams picking their partners, knowing full well they might face those same teams in the finals. And they still share strategy, still help each other debug.
### Invention and Innovation