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Tuesday, 03 February 2015 09:28

Elementary Students Bring STEM Learning to Life with Robotics Challenge Featured

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On Saturday, January 24th, three elementary schools in the Weber School District had the opportunity to participate in the regional VEX IQ Challenge. This challenge is sponsored by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation, and is a brand-new STEM program for elementary and middle school students. Students from MarLon Hills, Green Acres, and Country View represented their schools in this innovative and fun robotics challenge.

VEX IQ is a robotics platform that brings STEM learning to life for young students and their teachers. Kids as young as 8 years of age are eligible to participate. VEX IQ robots are built from a kit, similar to LEGO. The structural pieces snap together without tools and are powered by a variety of gears, wheels, and other accessories. Each robot is controlled by a "Robot Brain" which is essentially a programmable remote control device.

During the skills challenge, teams work together scoring points in Teamwork Matches by moving scoring cubes into the scoring zone and building high-rises. Teams are randomly paired, each with one robot and two drivers. Drivers take turns driving the robot and hand off the robot controller from one driver to the other mid-match. During the Robot Skills Challenge, one robot and two driver score as many points as possible under driver control during a one-minute match. Finally, during the Programming Skills Challenge, one robot scores as many points as possible autonomously (completing tasks without driver control).

This was the first year that Weber School District participated in the challenge, and all our teams did quite well. Congratulations to the Green Acres 640X team on winning the "Teamwork Champion Award," the "Programming Skills Champion Award," and the "Robot Skills Champion Award." The 640X team has qualified to move on to the Utah State Robotic Championship. Also of note, the Green Acres 640T team was given the "STEM Research Project Award." Congratulations to these up and coming engineers!

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