The Social Outcomes of Participating in the FIRST Robotics Competition Community

Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) and FIRST are partnering to investigate social networking within the FIRST community.FIRST aims to get young people interested in science, engineering and technology by providing young people with opportunities to develop and apply knowledge and skills in science, engineering, and technology.Moreover, FIRST provides a platform for young people to work with one another, work with mentors, and also cooperate and compete with one another.By providing this platform, FIRST encourages participants to develop communication and leadership skills, and may also boost self-esteem and self-confidence in participants.However, the social outcomes of participating in FIRST (e.g., boosts in self-esteem) has yet to be explored. Why Are Social Outcomes Important?According to Erik Erikson's (1959) psychosocial development theory, those between 13-19 are struggling with the question of who they are and what they want to do with their lives (1).Erikson argues that teenagers battle between role confusion (trying to figure out what role they should play) and identity (developing a sense of who they are and what they want to do with their lives).Moreover, Harris (1998) argues that youth are more likely to identify with their peers than their parents, and that peers are more likely to shape behaviors of individuals than parents (2).Thus, teenagers can be highly influenced by their surrounding peers, and it is possible that participating in FIRST may lead to positive benefits in terms of their psychosocial development as their participation may help teenagers find like-minded peers and help them develop an identity.Research also shows that youth who get involved in community programs and consequently interact with other youth and have adult mentors have more positive and advanced developmental outcomes (3,4,5,6).And, self-esteem may be influenced by peers and activities (7). Current ResearchThus, the specific goals of the current project are to (1) investigate social networking in FIRST, (2) investigate the social benefits of participating in FIRST (e.g., increased self-esteem, social awareness, social networking, social skills, etc.), (3) evaluate the usability and effectiveness of different networking and information repository websites that can by used by FIRST participants to better understand what resources FIRST participants are using and why.