“All it takes is a single spark to show our students that they could be the next robotics engineer, computer programmer or mathematician,” said Kevin Schalnat, curriculum and instructional coordinator for mathematics and science at Springfield schools. “This competition is just one example of how the district is making these career pathways come to life every day.”
This past winter, the nine Springfield elementary schools formed robotics teams, who began learning how to build robots and compete in the “VEX IQ Robotics Competition: Full Volume,” a game-based engineering competition for VEX Robotics.
The concept of the game is to build a robot that can pick up different sized blocks, worth points, and place them in a container. The team that scores the most points after a set amount of time wins. The students maneuver the robot by a remote control.
Student spent the second half of the school year “strategically building the perfect robots” for the competition.
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