Good day, Teams and Volunteers,
We hope your summer has been fun and super safe. If you have competed in any of the Premier Events, we would love to hear about your results and stories for our future email blasts. From what we have heard they were all amazing events.
Welcome to the second email blast for the upcoming PA FIRST Tech Challenge Season. Please liberally and broadly share this email with your parents, students, friends, co-workers and acquaintances in and outside of the FIRST robotics community.
If you missed any of our 23 season blasts from the 2025-2026 season or Blast #1 from this season, please go to our Communications page to reference Announcements and Archive Emails for this and all past seasons.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/communications
For team registration with FIRST, FIRST® Tech Challenge teams and individuals can join the program for the 2026-2027 season and can log in to a refreshed FIRST® Dashboard experience using last season login credentials or, for rookie teams, create a new account. The significance of the refreshed Dashboard experience is that it brings many improvements to team management and youth registration as well as the ability to update financial guarantor information ahead of the new FIRST Storefront opening (due mid-July). Blog post:
Key Changes to FIRST Tech Challenge Registration
Express Enrollment (U.S. & Canada) – Youth registration for the 2025–2026 season is now open through the Express Enrollment application in the FIRST® Dashboard. This streamlined process allows parents/guardians to register youth participants in just a few steps from any device.
Lead Coaches who have completed FIRST Youth Protection Screening can generate a web link or QR code in the Dashboard to share with parents/guardians.
Please note:
The PA region requires additional local consent or release steps. Please remind your team members, coaches, mentors and parents to complete any PA region-specific requirements. The system is all electronic and online and dependent on accurate and up-to-date team rosters.
Paper Consent and Release Forms are not allowed except in cases of demonstrable hardship (ex. no device, no internet access, or a significant language barrier).
For more information, see the Youth Registration System Walkthrough or the Field Development Youth Registration space.
Thank you for helping ensure youth participants are registered quickly and securely!
FTC Pennsylvania Live and Remote Kickoff Events – In addition to our annual remote kickoff event our teams/partner organizations will host six (6) Live kickoff events where we will have the 2026-2027 FIRST® Robotics season themed FIRST® CANOPY™ fields set up with volunteer personnel ready to explain the game rules and get you minds revved up for brainstorming and game strategy. This season’s challenge focuses on biodiversity and nature-inspired problem-solving. Starting with these kickoff events on Saturday, September 12, 2026, our FIRST Tech Challenge teams will amplify the excitement and energy found within the natural world during the new challenge, BIOBUZZ™ presented by RTX. More about the season:
https://www.firstinspires.org/first-canopy
The Kick-Offs require Registration to assist in the planning and coordination of each event. We will be at the same 5 locations as in past years and will soon be adding a 6th to enhance the experience for Pittsburgh based teams among others in the area, such as the Pittsburgh School District and city-based organizations Thank you to Girls of Steel Robotics for stepping up. This will be posted soon once details are established. We also expect to return to Kennett Square, again with details to come soon. FTC teams from outside the PA Region are welcome to attend any of our kickoffs as well. Please look forward to updates in the coming days.
See our website for locations and registration.
https://www.ftcpenn.org/ftc-events
https://www.ftcpenn.org/event-registration
We at Pennsylvania FIRST Robotics are also working diligently on the 2026-2027 Season Competition calendar. More to come on that subject, however our website for next season is up and running as we create opportunities and teams register with FIRST and our events, you will be able to track results. Qualifier registrations will not open until after the September 12th kickoff TBA.
Additional, from Email Blast #1:
Game Preview 2027: StarterBots, Skill Builders, Field Elements and More!
We are excited to share a preview of the upcoming 2026-2027 FIRST® Tech Challenge Game, BIOBUZZ™ presented by RTX. BIOBUZZ is part of the FIRST® CANOPY™ season. For the details in the bullets provided below please follow this Blog link.
https://community.firstinspires.org/game-preview-field-elements
Specifically, the FTC group is providing information to help teams explore some foundational aspects of the new game and get a head start helping each other prepare for the new season. Such as:
- The Scoring Element (Pollen) is already available for purchase through AndyMark
https://andymark.com/products/ftc-2026-27-preorders
- A preview of Robot Tasks
- StarterBot Base robots as available from FIRST 4 vendors. Please check them out to start or augment your new bot utilizing your preferred vendor.
– AndyMark
– goBILDA
– REV Robotics
– Studica
- FIRST Tech Challenge Skill Builders – To further support teams as they explore these foundational aspects of BIOBUZZ, thanks to FIRST Education there is a newly launched series of activities hosted on FIRST Training, including FIRST Tech Challenge Skill Builders. This content is designed to guide teams as they experiment with the new pollen scoring element and learn about the robot challenges unveiled in this Game Preview. These Skill Builders include learning content, challenges, and fun robot mini-games that are directly applicable to BIOBUZZ and the upcoming season. Teams can build driving skills, refine intake systems, and tackle autonomous challenges to level up their learning!
- AndyMark Pre-Orders Open – AndyMark game sets will be available for purchase through the AndyMark website. Game sets will not ship until September 14, 2026. Go to:
https://andymark.com/products/ftc-2026-27-preorders
Again, for details please go to: https://community.firstinspires.org/game-preview-field-elements
All the best,
Tom and the FTC PA Planning Team