VEX is...The VEX Robotics Design System offers students an exciting platform for learning about areas rich with career opportunities spanning science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). Every April a new game challenge is released. The game for the 2019-2020 season is called Tower Takeover. Visit https://www.vexrobotics.com/vexedr/competition/vrc-current-game for a video and description of the game.
For more detailed information about VEX Robotics visit http://www.vexrobotics.com/vexedr/why-vexedr . |
The Engineering Design Process |
Students must design, build, program, and operate robots to meet and exceed the challenge. Once the new game is released, students apply an engineering design process towards developing solutions to the challenge.
Students will learn and apply an engineering design process in their attempt to tackle this challenge. |
Tournaments |
VEX Robotics Competition tournaments are all-day events that begin at 7:30am and last sometimes until 5 or 6 pm. The VEX Robotics Competition is played on a 12 foot by 12 foot field. Two alliances composed of two teams each play against each other to accomplish the challenge and outscore their opponents. This means that there are four robots on the field during one match. Teams compete in 6-8 qualifying matches throughout the first half of the day. Teams are randomly assigned alliance partners for qualifying matches, so they don’t necessarily know the people on the other teams or what their robots can do. They must quickly build relationships with these teams and scout out competitors. During qualifying matches, judges visit the teams and ask questions about how they have designed their robot, the challenges they’ve faced during the process and how they solve them. Teams submit their engineering notebooks to show the record of their work. Students learn that if they don't document it, it didn't happen!
After qualifying matches end, the top eight ranked teams choose two teams each to form alliances that consist of three teams. These top eight alliances play through a quarterfinal, semifinal, and final round in which the alliance who wins two out of three matches moves on to the next round. The winning alliance from the finals round is crowned tournament champions which qualifies them to participate in the Arizona State Championship tournament. |