{"id":715,"date":"2024-11-12T21:00:34","date_gmt":"2024-11-12T21:00:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/staging.ii4t.org\/?p=715"},"modified":"2025-03-21T18:57:27","modified_gmt":"2025-03-21T18:57:27","slug":"elementor-715","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/staging.ii4t.org\/?p=715","title":{"rendered":"II4T VEX Robotics: A Student and State Champion’s Perspective on STEM"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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II4T VEX Robotics: A Student and State Champion's Perspective on STEM<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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This is a blog written by II4T summer intern, Jeremy, who shares his personal VEX experience from the 2021-22 season in which his two-team alliance battled another for a seat at the VEX World Championship.<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
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Jeremy Hacheral<\/strong>
II4T Intern
Cybersecurity Student
College of Information Science and Technology<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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One more match.<\/em><\/strong> A single match decides which two teams qualify for the VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas, Texas. It was the final match of the championship finals: the room was ready. My team, 25455Y, had allied with North Clarion High School\u2019s team- 79163F.\u00a0 We were tied 1-1 in a best of three match against an alliance of Franklin teams 814F and 814H. We had been preparing for this competition and this very match for months, it all came down to this. The atmosphere was quiet, the pressure was on, but we stood prepared. The following two minutes of hair-raising and succinct gameplay resulted in a game field too close for judges to score quickly. Out of all our stressful preparation in the past 5 months- it was nothing compared to the climax of tension- as the scorekeepers tallied up the match. After what felt like millennia, they finally announced, \u201cThe winning alliance is\u2026 teams 25455Y and 79163F.\u201d We had won, and it was all finally over as the room exploded with cheers.\u00a0<\/p>

In VEX Robotics competitions<\/a>, teams are presented with a challenge, or game, that they will need to design and assemble a robot to perform in using VEX robotics kits and parts. For example, the high school level of VEX implemented a game called Tipping Point where teams needed to manipulate different objects, including mobile goals and rings, to score points. A VEX team can consist of 3-12 students responsible for building and programming a robot, writing an engineering notebook to record their progress, and partake in a team interview during competitions. As teams learn more and more about the engineering design process, they begin to learn how to perform better in competitions, resulting in further inspiration to continue with the program and develop more knowledge in STEM.<\/p>

A senior from Cranberry Area High School, Riley Fry says, \u201cOver the years we\u2019ve definitely improved on our building quality and structural integrity. More importantly though, we\u2019ve increased upon our build efficiency, allowing us to develop more mechanical systems and thus learning more design principles. With experience and learning through our mistakes, we\u2019ve improved overall as a team.\u201d VEX presents excellent opportunities both in education and recreation for students of all ages. Robotics is a leading precursor to STEM occupations and advancement in the future of students across the country. With organizations like VEX, students are capable of learning the engineering design process from a young age, giving them the opportunity to be at the forefront of future industry across the world.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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A VEX Robot competing at the II4T 2024 VRC Western PA VEX Robotics Championship<\/a><\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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II4T is a Gateway to STEM Careers<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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Nearly 10% of careers in the United States involve some form of STEM, or Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics; and that number is rising quickly. According to the U.S. bureau of labor statistics, students should begin thinking about or even deciding a projected career path early in high school. In 1980, there were an estimated 4,000 industrial robots used. This number jumped to around 1,600,000 in 2015, and exploded to around 3,000,000 actively used today. In any industry rising this quickly, new interest and employees are essential. In the past decade, robotics as a high school program has become more readily available to schools all across the country, resulting in both big city schools and rural schools investing in some of the many robotics organizations. One great example of these is VEX Robotics and its partners like II4T that facilitate events, support school districts, and show kids a new world of career possibilities in STEM.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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Jeremy, II4T Summer Intern and former Champion VEX Competitor at II4T’s 2023 STEM STUMMIT<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

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This is a blog written by II4T summer intern, Jeremy, who shares his personal VEX experience from the 2021-22 season in which his two-team alliance battled another for a seat at the VEX World Championship.\u200b<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":732,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"slim_seo":{"title":"II4T VEX Robotics: A Student and State Champion's Perspective on STEM - Innovation Institute for Tomorrow","description":"This is a blog written by II4T summer intern, Jeremy, who shares his personal VEX experience from the 2021-22 season in which his two-team alliance battled anot"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-715","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.ii4t.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.ii4t.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.ii4t.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.ii4t.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.ii4t.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=715"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/staging.ii4t.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1208,"href":"https:\/\/staging.ii4t.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/715\/revisions\/1208"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.ii4t.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/732"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/staging.ii4t.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=715"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.ii4t.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=715"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/staging.ii4t.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=715"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}