What is VEX Robotics?
“VEX is educational robotics for everyone. It spans both formal and informal education with accessible, scalable, and affordable solutions. It allows educators to easily customize projects to meet the level of students’ abilities. Beyond science and engineering principles, VEX encourages creativity, teamwork, leadership, and problem solving, inspiring and preparing the STEM problem-solvers of tomorrow.”
For more information please visit the official website https://www.vexrobotics.com/
Our trip with VEX begins in the middle of recovering from the covid-19 pandemic. In 2021 Dr. Richard Buten proposed continuing the advancement of STEM education in our region. He invited professor Alan Ostrow to dust off and help dive into donated VEX V5 kits.
During professor Alan’s training visit, we sought to light up the passion for robotics. Like a relay race, Alan Ostrow, an experienced robotics mentor passed on the baton full of VEX knowledge to a group of 11 youth that had previously participated in First Global robotics. They were taught to construct, program and manipulate the robots.
These youth were the first fruits of VEX robotics, with whom we created a technical team. However, our team was reduced with students leaving to attend universities or work. Our group, now of six students, was led by professor Henglyns Lemus. The team met monthly to expand their knowledge of VEX V5. And before the end of 2021, they shared their learnings with a group of students in San Antonio to begin forming their own robotics club.
The flame for robotics could not be put out! And in 2022 we named Henglyns Lemus and Alex Reyes as robotics coordinators. They took an online course and became certified VEX V5 educators. They then spread the educational sparks by training students and mentors from Camasca, Santa Lucia and San Marcos de la Sierra.
With great success from the training, they decided to plan the first VEX competition in 2023 - with a focus on programming through the VEXcode VR platform.