Bring your school to the championships
Two free championship weekends, one invitation for teachers, families, and clubs across DC, Maryland, and Virginia.
Every winter and spring, the best FIRST teams in our region gather for two championships: the FIRST Tech Challenge Chesapeake Championship in February and the FIRST Robotics Competition District Championship in April. Both are free and open to the public, and this year we built something for the people who usually only hear about them afterward. If you teach, run a club, lead a troop, or just have a kid who likes to take things apart, this post is your one-stop guide. Bookmark it; we will keep it current as details lock in.
FTC Chesapeake Championship: February 6 to 7, 2027
Where: Meadow Event Park, 13191 Dawn Blvd, Doswell, VA 23047 (across from Kings Dominion, 25 minutes north of Richmond). Enter off Route 30 through Gate 3. Free admission, free parking.
Who's competing: Nearly 100 of the top FIRST Tech Challenge teams from Maryland, Virginia, DC, and West Virginia, grades 7 to 12, in two divisions.
What's new: My FIRST STEM Passport. Pick up a free passport at the door or print it at home. Visit five stops around the venue at your own pace, with your family or a small group: the pits, the field, scouting, talk to a team, and the Tech Mixer. At each stop a team member or volunteer adds a sticker to your passport. Four stickers earns a completion certificate aligned to the Virginia Standards of Learning, handed to you on the spot before you head home (with a little something extra for every finisher).
Groups of 10 or more (a class, a scout troop, a 4-H club, an after-school program) can request a free 45-minute guided visit with a student ambassador. Visits start at 10:00 AM Saturday, during practice matches and before opening ceremonies, with more windows Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.
Best times to come: Saturday from 10:00 AM for younger kids (practice matches, open pits, shortest lines for stickers) or Sunday afternoon for the playoffs (the most exciting matches and the biggest crowd). Closed-toe shoes, and ear protection for anyone sensitive to noise. Safety glasses are required in the pits and free at the pit entrance.
Get the passport, the family guide, and the group visit form: firstchesapeake.org/ftc/championship-27
FRC District Championship: April 8 to 11, 2027, with School Field Trip Day on Friday, April 9
Where: The Show Place Arena, 14900 Pennsylvania Ave, Upper Marlboro, MD 20772. Free admission, free bus and car parking, dedicated bus drop-off.
Who's competing: Sixty of the top high school FIRST Robotics Competition teams in the region, with industrial-scale robots, presented by Qualcomm.
School Field Trip Day. Friday is built for K to 12 school groups and CTSO chapters. A student ambassador from a competing team guides each group through the pits (where robots are built and repaired between matches), live matches, and a sit-down with team members and coaches about what they build and where they are headed after high school. The tour runs about 45 minutes and is sized to your group.
Mobile STEM Lab, grades 6 to 12. Our partner Learning Undefeated brings its mobile lab for an Environmental Mission: students work as a team of interns at a busy port, using touchscreen walls and augmented reality to plan a project that protects wildlife, reduces disruption for neighbors, and cuts emissions, on budget. Sessions run 15 to 20 minutes for up to 12 students and are booked when you reserve your tour window.
For teachers. The Field Trip Learning Guide has learning objectives by grade band, standards connections for Maryland and DC (NGSS, CSTA, Common Core) and a Virginia SOL crosswalk, prompts for before and during the visit, and reflection questions for the bus ride home. The codes are listed so you can drop them straight into a field trip request.
Reserve a tour window and download the guide: firstchesapeake.org/frc/championship-2027
The rest of the weekend is free and open to the public, so families are welcome Saturday and Sunday as well.
Coaches: you're the host
If you coach a team at either championship, the easiest way to fill the stands with your own school is to forward this post to the teacher, counselor, or administrator who would say yes to a field trip, and to let us know who runs science or STEM at your building so we can invite them properly. FRC coaches, we also need 20 or more student ambassadors per shift on April 9, and your students are exactly who we want leading the tours.
Want to bring FIRST to your school?
Every school that visits is a school that could field a team next season. Write to ftc-teams@firstchesapeake.org (FIRST Tech Challenge, grades 7 to 12) or frc-teams@firstchesapeake.org (FIRST Robotics Competition, high school) and we will walk you through next steps, from startup support to near-peer mentors.
Questions about either championship: events@firstchesapeake.org.
