KANSAS CITY ROBOTICS FOUNDATION

The Kansas City Robotics Foundation supports activities in robotics and education. Teams compete primarily through the FIRST (firstinspires.org) organization. FIRST stands for "For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology.” FIRST is an international youth organization to develop ways to inspire students in engineering and technology fields. The FIRST Tech Challenge (FTC) is designed for students in grades 7–12 to compete in annual competitive challenges. Teams are responsible for designing, building, and programming their robots to compete in an alliance format against other teams. Teams succeed by developing a strategy for each annual challenge, and then executing that strategy by building robots based on sound engineering principles.

We began informally as a group of friends and families who, in 2006, started a FIRST LEGO League robotics team to provide an exciting technology activity for our kids and their friends. As our kids grew, so did their interest in robotics. Over the years our families have expanded to field teams in FIRST LEGO League Jr and FIRST Tech Challenge and have helped start other FLL teams throughout the Kansas City Area, serving home-schooled, public-schooled and private-schooled kids who otherwise would not be able to do robotics.

In 2014, a group of parents decided to formalize our association and form a Missouri non-profit corporation, with the aim to expand our hands-on robotics and technology programs and competitive team opportunities to more young people and families in the Kansas City area. We also received designation by the IRS as a public charity under Internal Revenue Code Section 501(c)(3).

Our primary location is near Parkville, Missouri, however we serve public-schooled, home-schooled and private-schooled students and their families on both the Missouri and Kansas side of the state line from Kansas City, Smithville, Gladstone, North Kansas City, and Overland Park.