2016-2017 VEX Challenge IQ Team Survey

2016-2017 VEX Challenge IQ Team Survey! It’s hard to believe that the 2016-17 VEX IQ Challenge Crossover and VEX Robotics Competition Starstruck seasons are nearing a close! The REC Foundation is grateful to all the teams that participated this year and we hope to welcome you back in 2017-18. Keeping this in mind, we would like to invite you to share your feedback and help us plan for the new season. Please make every effort to respond as your feedback is extremely important to us! To complete the VEX IQ Challenge Survey please visit: http://surveys.verticalresponse.com/a/show/831219/9ddf512c8c/0 Thank you! The REC Foundation’s Mission Statement The REC Foundation seeks to increase student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students in hands-on, sustainable, and affordable curriculum-based robotics engineering programs across the U.S. and internationally. For more information, visit www.roboticseducation.org - http://www.roboticseducation.org . Past E-Mails Available Archives of all email blasts from this season can always be found here - https://vexforum.com/index.php/conversations/e-mail-blast-archive . Not Getting These E-mails? Many organizations automatically block group e-mails. You have two options: 1) Request that your IT department “White List” emails from mail.vresp.comand/or white list e-mails from the following IP addresses: 74.116.89.0/24 74.116.91.0/24 66.151.143.0/24 2) Make sure the alternate email address in your robotevents.comhttp://robotevents.com/ team account is different – not a school address. ______________________________________________________________________ Click to view this email in a browser VEX IQ Challenge 2016-2017 Team Survey! If you no longer wish to receive these emails, please reply to this message with “Unsubscribe” in the subject line or simply click on the following link: Unsubscribe ______________________________________________________________________ REC Foundation sent this email free of charge using VerticalResponse for Non-Profits. Non-Profits email free. You email affordably. REC Foundation P.O. Box 8276 Greenville, Texas 75404 US Read the VerticalResponse marketing policy: VerticalResponse Policies & Terms - VerticalResponse

I don’t know if I’m in the minority here but here was one of my comments in the survey.

"Again, I hate the STEM Research project. Don’t be a “me too robotics program” to FLL. Be about engineering. Be about the robot. Be about stretching those skills, not wasting time on 3 fold poster board. Any parent can crank one of them out at Staples in a few hours, they do it all the time. Lets make engineers, lets not make more kids that exist to do power point. "

It’s a distraction with roboteers that are naturally distracted. Why are we doing this? Other programs do Science Fair stuff (NSFairs, Odyssey of the Mind, FLL, etc,), why are we messing about with this?

And for those of you who’s roboteers who did 100’s of hours on the STEM project, no disrespect. But, can you tell me that the project was the best utilization of their and your time?

Edited to add: Thanks for the likes and the pnotes in favor

2 Likes

I’m sorry, Foster, but I’m going to disagree. I REALLY like the STEM presentation. The research skills that it teaches and the presentations, and the fact that STEM is more than robotics is invaluable. My kids have learned just as much from doing the STEM presentation as they have from building the robots.

Yay for your team!!! A few quick questions:

  1. Are they elementary on middle school
  2. What was the topic they chose
  3. What was the final presentation (3 fold board, video, mockups of design, etc)
  4. How much time did they spend on the STEM project
  5. How much time did they spend on the robot
  6. Did they win a STEM award
  7. Did they win a robot award

Thanks!

  1. All four teams that competed in STEM were Elementary School.
  2. Topics chosen: The Roomba, A Vending Machine, An Automated Car Wash, and Robotic Cow Herders.
  3. Final Presentations included: Three Fold Boards (Most teams had two), Mock-ups of their robots (Every team except the second graders), and prepared presentations.
  4. How much time was spent on the STEM presentation: Hmm, that’s a good question, 1-2 hours per week since August for most teams. The second graders didn’t put quite as much time into it, and our team that came in late put a LOT of time in a short window.
  5. How much time was spent on the robot. Well, our teams are expected to meet for at least 4 hours a week, but most meet for at least 6 hours. So, A lot.
  6. Between these four teams, we brought home two STEM research project awards, one design award, two robot skills awards, and seven excellence awards. Three of these teams will be competing at worlds, and each team competing at worlds is eligible, and signed up for, both the robot design and STEM awards at Worlds.

We did have one team that didn’t compete in the STEM portion, that team started late, and included two kindergartners. They actually started preparing a STEM presentation, but the fourth grader on the team had to miss several practices, because of a family emergency, and they ran out of time to do it correctly. But, they made finals at the state competition with their robot! (This team didn’t win any awards).