Awards at the 2018 Nebraska / Iowa VEX IQ Regional Championship

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VEX IQ tournaments are multi-faceted events that are designed to give students many paths to shine.  The 2018 Nebraska Iowa VEX IQ Regional Championship on March 3rd will offer an array of awards to compliment the well rounded structure of VEX IQ by recognizing the following skills and more:
Designing & Developing Ideas, Planning & Project Management, Research and Solution development, Engineering, Building and Mechanical skills, Programming, Collaboration, Public Speaking, Leadership, Creativity, Time Management

Awards List

The following will be awarded at the 2018 Nebraska / Iowa VEX IQ Regional Championship.

Robot Performance Awards

  • Teamwork Champion (2 Teams) [World Qualifier]
    1st Place Teamwork Challenge Alliance
  • Teamwork Challenge Second Place (2 Teams)
    Each Team on the 2nd Place Teamwork Challenge Alliance
  • Robot Skills Champion
    Top combined Programming and Driving Skills Challenge score

Standard Awards

  • Excellence Award – (Elementary School ) [World Qualifier]
    Most effective and efficient robot design process
  • Excellence Award – (Middle School) [World Qualifier]
    Most effective and efficient robot design process
  • Design Award – (Elementary School)
    Most effective and efficient robot design process
  • Design Award – (Middle School)
    Most effective and efficient robot design process
  • STEM Research Project Award
    Most effective research project presentation

Additional Judged Awards

  • Judges Award
    Recognition from Judges for special accomplishments
  • Sportsmanship Award
    Demonstrates respect and great enthusiasm
  • Think Award
    Robot utilizes effective programming
  • Inspire Award
    Team that inspires the Judges with their STEM Research Project
  • Create Award
    Robot with a creative engineering solution

Individual Awards

  • Teacher of the Year
    Recognizes outstanding teacher
  • Volunteer of the Year
    Recognizes outstanding program/event volunteer

[World Qualifier] Denotes awards that earn a World Championships qualification.

Closely following Event Documentation from REC

The following documentation is provided by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (REC), which will be closely followed at the Regional Championship.  Here are those documents for your reference:

Teamwork Champions – It’s all about collaboration

VEX IQ Challenge competitions focus on teams collaborating on the field to achieve the highest score they can together. The better they collaborate, the more rewarding the experience is for the team.  At the VEX IQ Regional, the collaboration between the top two team alliance in the finals is rewarded by earning a World Championship Qualification.

Excellence Award

The Excellence Award is the highest award presented in the VEX IQ Challenge. This award is presented to a team that exemplifies overall excellence in creating a high quality VEX robotics program. This team is a strong contender in numerous award categories. Excellence winners must have an Engineering Notebook and a STEM Research Project presentation.

Key criteria:

  • Design Award ranking
  • STEM Research Project Award ranking
  • Teamwork Challenge Qualification Matches ranking
  • Robot Skills Challenge ranking
  • Other Judged award rankings
  • High quality VEX robotics program

The Nebraska / Iowa Regional Championship will offer two Excellence Awards, one for the top overall Elementary School team and one for the top overall Middle School team.  Both teams will earn a World Championship Qualification.

Design Award

The Design Award recipient demonstrates the ability to implement the most effective and efficient robot design process. Their Engineering Notebook and discussion with the Judges will demonstrate the team’s ability to produce a quality robot with minimal adult assistance. Only teams that submit Engineering Notebooks are eligible for the Design Award.

Key criteria:

  • Engineering Notebook is a clear, complete, and organized document of the robot design process.
  • Team demonstrates effective management of skills, time, and material resources.
  • Students understand and explain how they developed an effective game strategy and robot design.
  • Students demonstrate teamwork and effective communication skills.

The Nebraska / Iowa Regional Championship will offer two Design Awards, one for the Elementary School team and one for the top overall Middle School team. The VEX IQ Design rubric will be used in Judging each team.

STEM Research Project Award

The STEM Research Project Award is presented to the team that shares the most effective STEM Research Project presentation. This presentation, as well as the followup discussion with Judges, effectively demonstrates the students’ significant depth of understanding of their topic and research findings. The presentation will also highlight the students’ work in sharing what they learned in an effective format.

Key criteria:

  • Identifies a challenge topic of interest that relates to the STEM theme for the season
  • Completes research and collects evidence using reliable sources
  • Demonstrates a well-organized and documented process to study and explain the research findings
  • Describes how the research findings were applied to develop and test the solution
  • Shares the solution in an effective and creative presentation
  • Students demonstrate an understanding of the entire research process
  • Students demonstrate teamwork and effective communication skills

This year’s STEM Research Topic is Robotics Engineering and Ethics.  The STEM Research Project Rubric will be used in Judging each team.

Inspire Award

The Inspire Award is presented to a team that has inspired Judges with their STEM Research Project presentation. This team will effectively communicate their passion for STEM and maintain a positive attitude throughout the presentation. The teams stem presentation will have impressed the Judges.

Think Award

The Think Award is presented to a team that has developed and effectively used quality program as part of their strategy to solve the game challenge.

Key criteria:

  • All programming is cleanly written, well documented, and easy to understand
  • Team has explained a clear programming strategy to solve the game challenge
  • Team demonstrates their programming management process, including version history
  • Students understand and explain how they worked together to develop their robot programming

Create Award

The Create Award is presented to the team whose robot design incorporates a creative engineering solution to the design challenges of the season’s game.

Key criteria:

  • Robot has a well-crafted, unique design solution, which demonstrates creative thinking
  • Team has demonstrated a highly creative design process and methodology
  • Team has committed to ambitious and creative approaches to solving the game challenges
  • Students understand and explain how they worked together to develop their robot

Sportsmanship Award

The Sportsmanship Award is presented to a team that has earned the respect and admiration of the volunteers and other teams at the event. VEX Worlds uses ballots for this award.

Key criteria:

  • Team is courteous, helpful, and respectful to everyone at the event, on and off the field
  • Team interacts with others on the game field in the spirit of friendly collaboration
  • Team demonstrates respect and willingness to help event staff, other teams, and spectators
  • Team demonstrates excitement and enthusiasm throughout the event

Judges Award

The Judges Award is presented to a team that the Judges determine is deserving of special recognition. Judges consider a number of possible criteria for this award, such as team displays of special attributes, exemplary effort and perseverance at the event, or team accomplishments or endeavors throughout the season that may not fit under existing awards, but are nonetheless deserving of special recognition.

Teacher of the Year

The Teacher of the Year Award is presented to a teacher who shows true leadership and dedication to his or her group of students. The winner of this award continually exceeds expectations to ensure a safe, enjoyable and educational experience for all students. The recipient of this award will be nominated by the students on their team with a written submission detailing how the teacher inspires, motivates and educates students in a positive, enthusiastic and challenging atmosphere.

Volunteer of the Year

The Volunteer of the Year Award is presented to an event volunteer who demonstrates a commitment and devotion to their community, putting in many hours of hard work with persistence and passion to help make events happen.

Feel Free to Share

Hopefully this email was helpful to new and veteran teams.  Please share this with anyone interested, if they wish to be added to the list they send an email to [email protected]

Have suggestions on additional topics that should be shared with the regional VEX IQ community?  Don’t hesitate to send us a note.

Tara and Brandon Petersen

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