Win-E-Mac hosts VEX Competition

Over 100 students from schools around the region competed with their teams in the VEX Competition, held last Saturday at Win-E-Mac School,  teams of students were tasked with designing and building a robot to play against other teams in a game-based engineering challenge. Classroom STEM concepts are put to the test on the playing field as students learn lifelong skills in teamwork, leadership, communications, and more. Tournaments are held year-round at the regional, state, and national levels; local champions go on to compete against the best in the world at VEX Worlds each April!

Youth participate in the VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) as part of a team working towards the goal of building a robot to compete in the current year’s challenge and the Online Challenges. The teams have an adult advisor. The essential elements for a team are some robot parts, a young person, and an adult coach. Most VRC teams have 4-7 youth members, but some have only one member and others have 10 or more. 

The game played against other teams is called Starstruck. Each round of the game is a team using their robot to toss big yellow “stars” or big orange pillows over a barrier. Along with competing against other teams, the students have an online challenge and a practice area. In between rounds, the teams are able to make repairs to their robots and strategize with team members.

There were 24 robots competing from 7 different schools. Win-E-Mac, Fosston, East Grand Forks, Lake of the Woods, Mahanomen, Bagley, and Verndale