MUSCLE SHOALS, ALA. — Winfield Middle School and Colbert Heights Elementary School led the group of winners at the 2019 Northwest Alabama SCORE VEX IQ Challenge last Saturday (11/16) in the Patriot Center (gym) on the Northwest-Shoals Community College (NW-SCC) Shoals Campus.
Winfield Middle School, team Bad Memory, and Colbert Heights Elementary, team Bionic Blue, won the competition Excellence Awards. Winfield Middle School, team The Flying Dutchmen, and Phillips Elementary School, team RoboBears2, won the competition Teamwork Champion Awards.
The winning teams collaborated with 31 elementary and middle school teams from: Central, Cherokee, Creekside Academy, Lauderdale County, Legacy Christian Academy, Mars Hill, Mountain Brook, New Bethel, Riverhill, Sand Rock, Weeden, and Winston County 4-H/Free State Homeschool.
Excellence Award and Teamwork Champion Award winners advance to compete for the state/regional championship at Auburn University on February 28-29, 2020. Winners of the state/regional championship qualify to showcase their skills at the VEX Robotics World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky.
The VEX IQ Challenge allows students build a robot using snap-together VEX IQ parts to solve an engineering challenge that is presented each year. Teams work together to score points in teamwork matches and show their skills individually in driver-controlled and programming Robot Skills Challenges.
“This event would not have been possible without our sponsors, partners, and volunteers that include Auburn’s SCORE, REC Foundation, TN Valley Robotics Foundation, TVA, BVI, Toyota Alabama, Flexco, Walmart (Hough Road, Florence), ATN, Tuscumbia Civitans, Tri-Cities Manufacturing, the Missile Defense Agency, and Southwire,” said Kim Sheppard, NW-SCC Math Instructor and Co-Hub Director of Northwest Alabama BEST Robotics at NW-SCC.
The VEX IQ Challenge is made possible through a partnership of the Shoals Chamber of Commerce, NW-SCC, and Auburn University’s Southeastern Center of Robotics Education. More information about the VEX Robotics Competition is available at www.roboticseducation.org, www.robotevents.com, and www.vexrobotics.com.
About Northwest-Shoals Community College:
Northwest-Shoals Community College (NW-SCC) is part of the Alabama Community College System and home to more than 3,500 students. NW-SCC offers over 100 certificate and degree programs and is committed to providing career technical, academic, and lifelong educational opportunities that promote economic growth and enrich the quality of life for the people it serves. For more information about the NW-SCC, visit www.nwscc.edu.
About the REC Foundation:
The REC Foundation seeks to increase student interest and involvement in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students in hands-on, sustainable and affordable curriculum-based robotics engineering programs across the U.S. and internationally. Its goal is to provide these programs with services, solutions, and a community that allows them to flourish in a way that fosters the technical and interpersonal skills necessary for students to succeed in the 21st Century. The REC Foundation develops partnerships with K-12 education, higher education, government, industry, and the non-profit community to achieve this work so that one day these programs will become accessible to all students and all schools in all communities. For more information on REC Foundation, visit www.roboticseducation.org.