The atmosphere at Black River Falls Middle School was electric this past Saturday, February 7th, as student-engineers gathered for the 1st Annual VEX IQ Tiger Qualifier. The event brought together local talent and visiting teams for a day of rigorous competition, strategy, and innovative design.
What is VEX IQ?
VEX IQ is a snap-together robotics system designed to provide elementary and middle school students with an introduction to the world of STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics). In these competitions, teams of students are tasked with designing, building, and programming a robot to play a game-based engineering challenge. Beyond the mechanical skills, the program emphasizes lifelong values such as teamwork, leadership, and professional communication.
Local Teams Take Home Top Honors
The Black River Falls VEX IQ Club had much to celebrate as two of its standout teams secured prestigious judged awards, proving that the future of engineering is bright in the district. Both teams will be representing Black River Falls School district at the state competition on March 8th in Green Bay, Wisconsin.
Team 47770 A: The Innovate Award
Team 47770 A was honored with the Innovate Award. This recognition is presented to a team that demonstrates an effective and well-documented design process for a novel aspect of their robot design or gameplay strategy. To win this award, the team had to identify a specific, unique engineering element and show the judges how they developed that idea from a concept into a working solution on the field.
Team 47770 C: The Design Award
Team 47770 C earned the highly coveted Design Award. This is one of the most respected honors in the VEX IQ circuit, as it recognizes a team that implements the most effective and efficient robot design process. The judges evaluated the team’s Engineering Notebook, which serves as a professional record of their iterative design journey, and conducted an interview to see how well the students understood their own engineering choices.
“The Design Award is the foundation for excellence,” noted one official. “It shows that the students aren’t just building a robot, but are truly learning the professional habits of an engineer.”
Black River Falls Vex IQ are blessed with gracious sponsors of Wanek Foundation and Lunda Charitable Grant Foundation. Congratulations to all the participants and volunteers who made this inaugural event a resounding success for the Black River Falls community.
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