Event registration is now open for all regular season events.  Be sure to register your teams for the upcoming events that you wish to attend.

Register your team:

You will first need to register any teams that you plan to have compete this season.  Visit Robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-iq-challenge and click on the “Register a Team!” button to be guided through the team registration process.

The team registration fee is $150 for the first team and $100 for each additional team. Included with your paid team registration fee is a Welcome Kit, which contains helpful information and resources to support your team’s participation in the VEX IQ Challenge.

2018-19 Schedule

Once you have registered your teams, now you can register them for events.  Here’s a list of events that you can

• Mary Our Queen VEX IQ Tournament
  Saturday, November 10th – $35 / team
  Elementary – Registration
  Middle School – Registration
• Marrs VEX IQ Tournament
  Saturday, December 1st – $35 / team
  Elementary – Registration
  Middle School – Registration
• Jr. Jacket Robotics Vex IQ Tournament
  Saturday, December 8th – $35 / team
  Elementary – Registration
  Middle School – Registration
• St. Robert Bellarmine VEX IQ Tournament
  Saturday, January 12th – $35 / team
  Elementary – Registration
  Middle School – Registration
• Omaha Area League Play
  Registration is $40 per team
  – Jesuit Academy – Monday, November 19th
  – Kids Can – Thursday, December 6th
  – St. Leo Catholic Church – Monday, January 21st
  – Holy Cross School – Monday, January 28th
  All Levels – Event Details
• Nebraska / Iowa Regional – Thomas Jefferson HS
  Saturday, February 9th
  Elementary – Event Registration Available Later
  Middle School – Event Registration Available Later

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

The Nebraska / Iowa VEX IQ Regional Championship will be held on Saturday, March 3rd.  Elementary and Middle School students from Iowa and Nebraska will come to this event using the VEX IQ Robotics Platform to compete in STEM challenges.

Just like a sports team, these students are motivated to achieve a goal.  They demonstrate determination, creativity and perseverance to overcome challenges.  Most importantly, they understand that hard work and commitment leads to greater success.

How to Register

All registered Iowa and Nebraska VEX IQ teams are eligible for the Regional Championship.  Coaches will need to visit the official event page to register for the Regional Championship by February 20th.  Please don’t hesitate to register at your earliest convenience.

What to Expect at the Regional Championship

This year, there’s been a significant increase in the number of VEX IQ teams eligible for the Nebraska / Iowa VEX IQ Regional Championship. With the increase of teams, we’ve moved to a larger venue at the St. Cecilia Cathedral Gym.   This will include ample space for students, competitions fields, parking and spectators.

To better handle the increase in teams, there will be three Teamwork competition fields and three Skills Challenge fields.  All fields will be raised to the same height as the World Championship fields, which is 18 inches.

The Design and Excellence Awards will be awarded at grade level, allowing Elementary and Middle School level teams their own opportunity to earn the awards.  We also intend to add three more awards and need input from all VEX IQ organizations in the region.  If you are a coach, please visit this coaches input form to help us decide which three awards we add to the Regional Championships.

We plan to send out more in depth emails in the following weeks about different areas of the Regional Championships, including: the event agenda, awards & judging, World Championship qualification, and more.

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.  Any clarifications for the event will be run by the Regional Support Manager, Kirk Norrid, as needed.  Here are those documents for your reference:

• VEX IQ Challenge Ringmaster – Game Manual
• VEX IQ Challenge Ringmaster – Q&A Summary
• VEX IQ Challenge Qualifying Criteria
• Robot Inspection Checklist
• Judge Guide
• STEM Research Project Rubric
• Design Award Rubric
• Technical Awards Rubric
• Team Design Notebooks and Team Journals
• STEM Research Project Adult Chaperone Policy

Do not hesitate to reach out to Tara Petersen at [email protected] and Brandon Petersen at [email protected] if you have any questions.

Event Details

Here’s a quick reference of the most important details at the Nebraska / Iowa VEX IQ Regional Championship:

• Date of Competition:
  Saturday, March 3rd.  Starting at 8 am
• Cost of Registration:
  $35 per VEX IQ Team
• Registration Deadline:
  February 20th, 2018
• Event Venue: 
  St. Cecilia Cathedral Gym, 3869 Webster St. Omaha, NE
• Skills Attempt Limit:
  4 Max Driver attempts and 4 Max Programming attempts per team
• Total Number of Qualification Matches per Team:
  8 Qualification matches
• Total Number of Alliances in Finals:
  10 Alliances
• Worlds Qualification Spots
  4 total Worlds Qualification Spots by earning one of the following: Middle School Excellence (1), Elementary School Excellence(1), Teamwork Champion (2)
• Event Registration and Full Details: 
  https://www.robotevents.com/robot-competitions/vex-iq-challenge/RE-VIQC-17-3845.html

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

Inspiring future girl STEM Leaders at the Holy Cross Omaha #GirlPowered Event. The girls enjoyed the Quick Build with #VEXIQ robots.

The STEM Panel of Female Leaders was amazing! Thank you for sharing your stories and inspiring these young girls!

Know the Challenge

Each season brings a new IQ Challenge, which means new game objects, field objects and rules.  The intent of this email is to ensure students on every team have all information they need to have a successful and rewarding season.  Please forward to anyone that would be interested, including students, parents and mentors.

It’s all about collaboration
VEX IQ Challenge competitions focus on teams collaborating on the field to score the highest score they can together. The better the students understand the game, the more prepared they are to collaborate with others. The better they collaborate, the more rewarding the experience is for the team.

Continue reading →

The 2017-18 VEX IQ Challenge season has begun in Iowa and Nebraska, with teams competing with each other in the Ringmaster game.  This will be the most exciting VEX IQ season with the expansion in teams and tournaments.

Rapid Growth in VEX IQ Challenge Teams

In 3 years, Nebraska and Iowa has seen rapid growth in VEX IQ Challenge teams.  We’ve already doubled the number of teams from last year, with more teams planning to register this season.  This growth has earned our region an additional World Championship Qualification spot for this season (now 3 spots).  If the team growth continues, we could earn additional bonus spots this season.

Also, we’ve been fortunate to maintain an even split between Elementary and Middle school teams.  Hopefully we continue to grow each division to allow both the opportunity for awards at each grade level at all tournaments.

Season	MS Teams	Elem Teams	Total Teams	Worlds Spots	# of Events
2015-16	1	0	1	1	0
2016-17	5	5	10	2	3
2017-18*	12	14	26	3**	7

* Registration is still in process for the season.
** Based on the overall team growth by December 31st, REC could grant additional World Spots to our region. Continue reading →