Not one, not two, but 24 robotics teams are representing the St. Vrain Valley School District next month at the VEX Worlds Championship.
Taking place in Dallas this year, student-led teams from the elementary to university level compete at this global event showcasing game strategy, design and teamwork skills in robotics. St. Vrain’s 24 teams represent 11 schools across the district in the four categories: VEX IQ Elementary, VEX IQ Challenge Middle School, VEX Robotics Competition Middle School and VEX Robotics Competition High School.
Soaring Heights PK-8 will be sending 10 teams this year including two at the elementary level, seven in the two middle school categories, and a high school team all coached by Jamie Nesbitt.
“I’ve never sent more than two teams before in the past,” Nesbitt said. “This has been a really overwhelmingly successful season for our school.”
To Nesbitt, the most exciting part of the robotics season this year was the ability to get back to normal. Soaring Heights was going to host the VEX state championships in March 2020, with schools shutting down just two days before.
Last year was a hybrid virtual season, which didn’t feel the same.
“This year being able to have all the kids back together and competing in person, it’s really just revived youth robotics here in Colorado,” Nesbitt said.
Westview Middle School is sending another four teams, and coach Danny Hernandez emphasized that participating in VEX is a yearlong extracurricular commitment that students invest in.
“This is a group of students who are pretty serious about this,” Hernandez said.
The “games” for VEX Worlds are released during the world competition in May, which is typically when teams are formed. They spend the summer and early school year analyzing the game, understanding the rules and experimenting with prototypes.
Teams then have to go through an approval panel where they present their ideas to industry professionals to prove that they understand the game and what they need to do. Then the students start building robots and competing. The state competition takes place in early March.
Along with learning engineering, the program teaches students about collaboration and group management.
“Our ultimate goal is to prepare these kids for life,” Hernandez said. “We really stress that if you’re willing to work hard, if you’re willing to work as a team, if you’re willing to collaborate and basically use all of the 21st century skills, then the rewards will happen.”
For the middle school level robotics competition, there were 11 spots for Colorado schools to make it to VEX Worlds. With the three teams from Soaring Heights and four teams from Westview, St. Vrain is pretty dominant in the category.
The district’s prominence in the VEX competition comes from both a growing interest with hundreds of students now in robotics clubs and St. Vrain’s support for the program, the robotics coaches said.
Students still have another month to prepare for the competition, which takes place May 3-12 in Dallas. The teams are spending the time perfecting their robots.
“I think they’re mostly excited. I think they’re a little bit nervous,” Nesbitt said of his students. “They’ve very excited to go and meet kids from other places and have that experience too.”
Fall River, Eagle Crest and Lyons elementary schools are also sending a team, with Red Hawk Elementary sending two. Lyons Middle Senior is sending a middle level team, as are Altona and Trail Ridge middle schools.
Along with Soaring Heights, the Innovation Center and Longmont High School are sending high school level teams to VEX Worlds.
