Students from Maple Valley and Valley City VEX IQ Robotics Competition teams secured Teamwork Champions and the Excellence award at the state competition in Grand Forks. The students collaborated with 30 teams from North Dakota. These teams have qualified for the chance to showcase their skills at the VEX Robotics World Championship in St. Louis, MO.
These VEX IQ Robotics Competition teams are comprised of Christian Pilgrim, Joseph Bata, Gavin Schatz, Cole Hovelson, Liam Biggers, Cole Hovelson, and Carter McKay of Maple Valley, and Liam Bruns, Devarsh Suryawanshi, Isaac Woehl, and Beckett Ness of Valley City. In the VEX IQ Robotics Competition, students, with guidance from their advisor, build a robot using simple, snap-together VEX IQ parts to solve an engineering challenge that is presented each year in the form of a game. Teams work together to score points in Teamwork Matches and get to show off their skills individually in driver-controlled and programming Robot Skills Challenges.
In addition to building robots, the STEM Research Project component of the VEX IQ Robotics Competition encourages students to actively explore an engineering challenge of their choice and share their research findings with event judges and their community.
The VEX IQ Robotics Competition fosters student development of teamwork, collaboration, critical thinking, project management, and communication skills required to prepare them to become the next generation of innovators and problem solvers.
Derek Bear, Maple Valley advisor, said, “I’m extremely proud of what these students have accomplished this season. The hands-on experience, real-world STEM activities, and problems that the students face are invaluable. This VEX IQ Robotics program has truly sparked curiosity about STEM subjects that will benefit them in their education and professional future.
VEX IQ Robotics Competition teams meet after school two days per week. They also can attend a camp in mid-summer.
“Teamwork, problem-solving, and ingenuity are all on display at a VEX IQ Robotics Competition event and students develop these skills all year long by participating on a robotics team,” said Dan Mantz, CEO of the RECF. “Together, with the support of educators, coaches, and mentors, we’re fostering students’ passion for STEM at a young age to ensure that we have a generation that is dedicated to creating new discoveries and tackling life’s future challenges.”
The RECF manages the VEX IQ Robotics Competition that many schools participate in around the world. VEX Competitions make up the world’s largest and fastest-growing competitive robotics programs for elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and colleges around the world. There
There are more than 55,000 VEX teams from 125 countries that participate in over 3,613 events worldwide.
