Fall Competition Classes (VEX IQ Challenge)
No Experience Necessary. All of our fall students take part in the VEX IQ Challenge, even if they have no experience with robotics. The VEX IQ Challenge is an exciting educational competition for grades 4-8. Although there is a competition, there is a great deal of cooperation. Even students on different teams will learn and grow together.
Students will be paired in teams of two either by request or assigned by the instructor. If you have a partner, that's great. If you need a partner, the instructors will pair you up with someone the same age, temperament, and knowledge level. Designs, building and programming are all done by the students. Experienced instructors are here to aid, inspire, and teach. Our instructors are here to teach, coach, and mentor. Instructors do not build the robots for the students.
We keep our classes small. Never more than 8 students. This allows us the time and opportunity to get to know the children individually and to give them the individualized attention they deserve.
Classes are onsite. Classes will be in person once per week for 1 hour and 45 minutes. We can't provide an exact fall schedule yet because competitions will not be scheduled until late September. There will be a minimum of 10 sessions over the 12 week fall schedule. This is to account for potential schedule changes due to competitions or other unforeseen circumstances. Last year we were able to give students 11 sessions and have a cleanup day. We expect all students to attend the cleanup day to take apart their robots.
We intend to have three competitions this year. These events are typically in school gyms, but one event may be in our facility. Events occur in the morning for elementary and the afternoon for middle school students. Team registration and tournament fees are included in the class fee. If teams do well in the first competitions, they can move on to the State or even the World Championship.
Competitive robotics is by far the best motivator we have seen to getting kids to want to pursue academic interests. This is why we will always focus our school towards competitions rather than just an academic pursuit. The kids simply want to improve thier abilities and therefore want to learn more. We are happy to teach them all they want to know!
Fall Schedule
Register a class by following the register link for your preferred date/time below.
We have a new system. If you were not with us over the summer you will need to register as a new student.
If there are no classes listed below we are full. Please check in for the next session.
What's Next? - Winter/Spring Classes
Introduction to Robotics - An exciting introduction to robotics for 4th to 7th graders, this class gives kids a chance to design, build, and program a VEX IQ robot and then solve a series of fun challenges while developing their skills. The class culminates with the Grand Challenge, in which kids try to accumulate all the points they can as they extend their new found skills.
Advanced Robotics - In this class, we present fun challenges that present common problems in robotics. We individualize the instruction based on the children's abilities to solve the problems in more and more advanced ways. This approach allows us to have first, second, and third year students in the same class while advancing their skills based upon their ability levels. Our advanced classes focus primarily on developing programming during the winter session and building during the spring session. Prerequisite: Intorduction to Robotics or Competition Robotics or equivalent experience.
