There was never any doubt that funding would be an issue in creating a new robotics course at Corvallis High School.  It was my hope that I could get grants or donations to get the course going.  When the FIRST Robotics was announced, I thought that it could be the ticket to get the course going.

FIRST would have provided the course startup money.  The school district would provide a 'normal' amount of classroom operating money.

As it turned out, the set of standard parts that were supplied with the $5000 entry fee for the FIRST competition was only a start - a minimum set.  Other parts and a good amount of supplies were required to have a competitive robot.  In the end the main benefit of the FIRST grant for starting a class was in the generation of interest, and to a small degree the parts we has left over.  There was no money from the FIRST grant that I could apply directly to starting up a new class.