Hi, I am excited to be offering a robotics class at our high school. We will be using the V5 platform and the STEM labs for instruction. It seems that most of the STEM labs require only the classroom kit. However, some of the labs at the end will require some parts of the Super Kit. BTW… the cost of the super kits are about 2x the normal classroom kits. Can anyone recommend which one to get? Please note, we plan on competing next year, but will be purchasing the competition kits separately.
I am not super familiar with the STEM labs, so I can’t specifically speak to those. You will want to look closely at what equipment is required to complete the labs to make sure you have what you need.
The starter kit will give you enough parts and equipment to build the clawbot, but that is it, you will not have any parts left over. The super kit will give you all of that plus tons of extra pieces and equipment to do other things. If you just compare the pictures between the two you get a good idea:
Starter Kit:
You may not have a use for everything in the Super Kit, though, so it will be good to know what you need and have a use for. You could consider a middle ground if you are buying multiple kits, say buy 4 Starter Kits and 2 Super Kits.
Another thing to keep in mind is the difference between CLASSROOM kits and COMPETITION kits.
One of the biggest differences is that the classroom kits use steel and the competition kits use aluminum. Aluminum is nearly universally preferred for competition over steel due to the weight savings. Aluminum is also more expensive. It does go beyond that in the differences, though. The classroom super kit has a bunch of specialty components that are interesting for the classroom but not useful for competition (advanced motion gear kit, baseplates, etc.). The competition kit is designed to have the equipment most commonly used by highly competitive teams in designing and building their robot.
