We are excited to be making plans for next season and I wanted to verify that, as far as the Game Design Committee is aware, the 2016-2017 season will also allow students to compete who are 14 but in 8th grade (or lower). We have a great core team who are ready to go strong next year as a team, but the age issue could potentially cause us problems if they again made a preliminary rule changing the age down to 13. We want to get an early start this next season but don’t want to be left hanging as to who on our team may get age-booted (even though all will be 8th or lower). If that will be an issue we will have to strongly consider moving up to the Vex Middle School competition, but we would much rather get one more year out of Vex IQ.
Laura
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Originally posted by KarthikView Post
Greetings everyone,
On behalf of the Game Design Committee we want to thank you for starting this valuable discussion and providing feedback regarding the VEX IQ age limit. We also received multiple correspondences from team leaders outside of this forum. Our committee has had time to discuss with our VEX IQ program specialists and have decided upon the following new wording for the definition of Student. We hope this new wording clarifies our intent and eases the concerns of any students who feared they were ineligible as a result of the previous definition.
[FONT=arial]“Student – Anyone born after April 30, 2002 (age 13 or lower) or enrolled in grade 8 or lower on April 30, 2016. Anyone enrolled in grade 9 on April 30, 2016 isonly*** eligible to participate on a VEX IQ Challenge team when enrolled in a middle school or district, which includes grade 8, but not grade 10. Students are the individuals who design, build, repair, and program the Robot, with minimal adult assistance*”
This wording will be included in the updated version of the manual being released on June 15th.
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To further this discussion, I’d like to ask this:I know the rules say a team with 6th grade members in a MS team… A 6th grade team at an ES school they attend is eligible to be an ES team. I do think this creates a disadvantage for teams whose elementary schools only go up to 5th grade. I would also ask this: if a team is private and not affiliated with a school, whose to say where they would fall in? If a 6th grade private (non school affiliated) team signs up for ES, shouldnt they be an MS team since they are not technically affiliated with a school and just age based?
I just think it would help the confusion and more importantly the integrity of competition if the divisions were clearly identified as ES - up to 5th grade, MS - 6th grade and up. This would be regardless of school affiliation and whether or not your ES ends at 5th or 6th grade.
Good point - I have a side question to that, as my younger son’s team has a problem with that definition from the opposite side. They are all elementary-school aged, but my son is a grade ahead (due to timing in his early school years) and will be in 6th grade while the remainder of the team will be 5th or under. We are not public school affiliated as we homeschool, so would they be a MS team or ES? My understanding is that the entire team will have to be registered as a middle school team due to one member being in 6th grade (regardless of age) and not attending an ES that goes up to 6th grade (because they don’t attend public ES at all). Can I maybe technically register the team as ES?
In our case, if we’re talking age-based it would seem to be more fair to be able to register as ES because age-based they all fall in the ES category. Perhaps if it were defined for the ES as it is for the MS, with both an age OR a grade? For instance, anyone age 11 or younger or enrolled in grade 5 or less?
I guess the “up to 6th if…” is trying to help those in an elementary school that goes up to 6th, but it does seems to be penalizing those who are either in a traditional MS or are outside the traditional school system. It would seem to be more reasonable to have a specific definition that covers all; maybe do anyone age xx or younger and enrolled in grade 6 or less period. It seems likely that a traditional MS team will include kids above 6th grade, which will automatically make them register as MS, but they would then at least have an option of making a team of entirely 6th graders that could qualify for the ES team.