FIRST Badges include the following:

Four levels around a topic / domain common in a FIRST Robotics Competition team.  Defined performance-based activities illustrate skills and demonstrate competencies of an individual student.

1.  Requirements are appropriate for high school students 14-18 years old.

2.  Requirements are adaptable to any team’s practice and procedures.

3.  Level 1 and Level 2 requirements are assessed by FRC team mentors using a binary rubric.

4.  Level 3 and Level 4 badge requirements culminate in complex projects. Projects are assessed and validated by experts outside of the student’s FRC team.   Level 3 and Level 4 badges may be eligible for project-based graduation credit.

5.  Requirements must be modeled on Bloom’s Taxonomy of Educational Objectives.  More details on these learning frameworks are available here and here.

Note: The requirements must be activities within the participant’s experience on an FRC team.

Level 1 Remembering/Understanding. Participants show basic knowledge of the topic/domain.

  • Number: 5-6 requirements or topics assessed at the  basic knowledge level.
  • Amount of time: 5-10 hours total.  A minimum amount of time in a specific activity can be a requirement.
  • Assessment guidelines: Requirements assessed as 1 = understands   0 = does not understand.
  • Assessment type: Team based, by a team mentor

Level 2 Applying  Participants demonstrate application of the topic/domain to a team goal or activity.

  • Number: 5-6 requirements at the execution and/or implementation level
  • Amount of time: 10-20 hours in this level. A minimum amount of time in a specific activity can be a requirement.
  • Assessment guidelines: Binary rubric.
    1 = can execute with some guidance or 0 = cannot execute without significant guidance.
  • Assessment type: Team based, by a team mentor.

Level 3 Analyze/Evaluate  Participants will demonstrate an analysis or conduct an evaluation related to the topic/domain.

  • Number: 3-4 requirements where task / skill requires checking, critiquing, differentiating, or analyzing.
  • Amount of time: 20-30 hours total in this level. A minimum amount of time in a specific activity can be a requirement.
  • Assessment guidelines: *Requires a portfolio upload of the individual student’s work. Can be a collaborative task, but the documented work must be unique to the student.
  • Assessment type:  Portfolio upload.  A FIRST mentor or industry expert can clearly see evidence of the student’s analysis.

Level 4 Create / Generate  Participants will demonstrate a high level of topic/domain content mastery by developing a new system, process, or extended activity aligned with team goals.

Examples could include:

A well-documented design notebook OR a complete website with original content in which the student is the principal author OR an event with specific planning, execution, implementation and evaluation specific to a team’s goals.

  • Number: 1-2 requirements where the skill or task involves a complex project.  The project should encompass a system or body of work. Mentor guidance is expected, but the work should be credited to only one student.
  • Amount of time: 30+ hours. A minimum amount of time in a specific activity can be a requirement.
  • Assessment type:  A portfolio upload of the individual’s work.