This is actually five competitions in one.  MN State High School VEX Robotics Championship, MN State Middle School VEX Robotics Championship,

MN State Middle school VEX IQ Robotics Championship, MN State Elementary School VEX IQ Robotics Championship, and the NCAT RAD (Drone) Tournament. 

NCAT Partners also feature many more STEM engagement activities and student competitions that are not featured in this video such as:

Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) National Center Underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle ROV student competition https://mateii.org/rov-competition/

MATE ROV is a worldwide event with more than 20 countries and 60 team participating in the MATE ROV World Event.

The MinnState Transportation Center of Excellence leads the Nitro-X automotive competition. https://www.minntran.org/students/nitro-x/

The Center for Advanced Automotive Technologies features AutoSTEAM: http://autocaat.org/Students/Student_Activities/

The GeoTech Center hosts a Geospatial Technology Skills Competition: http://www.geotechcenter.org/geospatial-technology-skills-competition-winner.html

The recruitment strategies are numerous.  We host competitions, summer camps, educator workshops, and present at opportune gatherings.  Students generally want to be on robotics teams.  The more challenging part is recruiting coaches and convincing schools and other organizations to start competition teams. We find adults are reluctant to jump into program until they feel knowledgeable about the competition.  Educator workshop are critical to recruiting into these STEM Outreach programs. We have deployed many recruitment strategies including formal presentation to cooperatives, administrators, and corporate sponsors.  Some of the best recruitment comes via word of mouth from the students, parents and mentors in the program. They have great stories to share which inspire others to get involved.

In addition to the competitions we host numerous summer camps which add to the recruitment effort.  For students in the program summer camps are an opportunity to develop their skills and learn from mentors.  For others new to robotics it is an explorative experience. Many times a competition team has been started by a student attending a camp and going back to their school to start a program.

A key value for competitions that NCAT sponsors is to not be limited to schools which opens the door for many other organizations such as home school, 4-H, scouts, and community groups.   The competition models are student centered.  The students are the ones doing the work as the  mentors /coaches are restricted from working directly on the robots.  This means that the mentors don’t need to be robotics experts thus opening the door for those with different skill sets.  We want a program where the students benefit from iterative learning and the coaches manage logistics like signing waivers and arranging transportation. Some of our best coaches couldn’t build or program a robot, but they give the students opportunity by taking care of the team’s supervision and logistics.

Additional Questions from the NCAT team

What methods can educators use to increase access, and increase inclusion of underrepresented groups to STEM education?

What is the long-term impact of STEM competitions on participant career choices.  What tools and methods can be used to track these students?

How do students’ perspectives of Autonomous Technology compare between groups in STEM competitions and groups not in STEM Competitions?

What is the corporate perspective of the  impact of STEM outreach programs?

How do educators and school administrators know which STEM competition is right for their school? This is a complicated question with many factors. A matrix for educators to evaluate the major STEM outreach programs would compare important criteria including price, time commitment, season schedule, skills learned, student centers vs mentor led, lab space requirements, access to competitions, target age, links to websites, and other criteria. This tool would prove valuable for decision makers to directly compare STEM outreach programs.  A consumer reports for STEM competitions.  

As a result of the COVID-19 mitigation many of our summer camps have been cancelled. NCAT looks at this as an opportunity to develop resources to help the Autonomous community. We are currently assembling a plan to develop videos, lesson plans, activities, and assessments which will be open to educators.  This digital content will be great resources for educators.  All of this in the development phase with the intent to produce over the summer months.  The intent is to share these materials with educators as open educational resources.

One of our NCAT partners MATE has developed a "ROV in a bag" https://www.marinetech.org/mate-loaner-rov-kit-request-form-/ :

MATE also has a mechanism to keep students engaged and that is by the progression of competition classes or “levels”.
-SCOUT (entry-level)
-NAVIGATOR (beginner-intermediate)
-RANGER (intermediate)
-EXPLORER (advanced)
The progressive structure MATE has put in place complements the educational pipeline by providing students with the opportunity to build upon their skills as they engineer increasingly more complex technology for increasingly more complex tasks, allowing them to stay engaged and advance after they master each level. As such, the competition classes are not defined by grade level, but rather by the knowledge, skills, creativity, innovation and motivation of the student teams.

MATE is both after school or in-school; teachers, mentors, and event parents implement the project in a variety of ways.  

MATE’s pricing for the programs differs as they strive to keep it accessible to a wide and diverse audience of students. Jill Zande, MATE II President/Executive Director can provide additional details, but for example, registration for the MATE Competition currently ranges from $50 - $400, depending on the competition class that you enter. Unlike other programs out there, you are not required to use MATE ROV kits; MATE created them (via funding from ITEST grant) to reduce barriers to participation, but not as a requirement for competition. MATE kits currently range from $190 - $725, depending on the complexity.

That’s a great question Gerhard! I referred this question to our DRONETECH Director – Thomas Biller, who works with student competition groups, particularly for the RAD Aerial Drone Competition. He responded by stating: “I have also seen where male students have taken over in a mixed-group setting. However, I believe it narrows down to the students personality type, as I’ve also seen where a female student takes charge in a group setting.  As far as an all-female student team working together, there was an all-female team that won the Minnesota State Championship Robotics Aerial Drone Competition this year. I truly believe that male and female students are both equal when it comes to STEM activities, especially in the world of drones. The skill sets aren’t reliant on physical traits as much as problem-solving skills and creativity.”

Speaking with Andrew Dahlen, Mechatronics Instructor at Northland Community and Technical College, VEX Robotics Coordinator, and major contributor for NCAT, he had this to say. The group dynamics in mixed gender teams is always very interesting to observe.  There are always exceptions to these statements, but generally speaking we find male students tend to grab leadership roles on the team.   Many coaches have designed team management strategies which encourage all team members opportunities for growth and development.  All female teams do have some advantages and have experienced tremendous success in this program. 

Andrew Dahlen, Mechantronics Instructor at Northland Community and Technical College and VEX Robotics Coordinator has helped our region grow from five VEX teams (8 years ago) to more than 400 teams in our region today. The startup costs for equipment vary for the three programs represented in the video. A VEX Robotics team needs about $1,500, a VEX IQ team needs roughly $300 and a RAD team needs $300 for equipment startup. The Robotics Education and Competition Foundation has historically offered grants to new team start-ups and girl-powered teams. They’ve also even offered a regional grant to start new competition teams. Here is a link to apply for these: https://www.roboticseducation.org/grants/

These programs also require teams to register on Robotevents.com.  For more information on starting a team look at this resource:  https://www.roboticseducation.org/documents/2019/06/how-to-start-and-organize-a-vrc-team-2.pdf/

The MATE ROV kit and materials were listed earlier but I’ll repost to ensure they are not missed. The pricing for the MATE’s programs differs as they strive to keep it accessible to a wide and diverse audience of students. Jill Zande, MATE II President/Executive Director can provide additional details, but for example, registration for the MATE Competition currently ranges from $50 - $400, depending on the competition class that you enter. Unlike other programs out there, you are not required to use MATE ROV kits; MATE created them (via funding from ITEST grant) to reduce barriers to participation, but not as a requirement for competition. MATE kits currently range from $190 - $725, depending on the complexity. More information can be found at: https://www.marinetech.org/mate-loaner-rov-kit-...

NCAT has been investigating this and would be very interested in solutions.  We've found challenges a process to track students participating at the k-12 level into their educational tracks and careers based on data collection sensitivity.  See the responses above to address you second question about the integration into programs and after school activities. 

Hi Anne-Claire,

I added a reply to your question below, as a separate post, before seeing the reply option here.  Please have a look!

Please see the earlier responses and let me know if you have more questions that have not been addressed.

We did a few studies back in 2013-2015 for the 360 Manufacturing ATE Center of Excellence related to VEX Robotics.   These are the high level findings:

The majority of youth respondents felt that they learned many skills very well by working with their team, particularly “imagination and creativity” (74%) and “working by trial and error” (73%).

Youth reported greater interest and confidence in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM), as well as greater interest and awareness in manufacturing careers.

Youth and adults reported more favorable opinions of STEM and manufacturing careers after completing the VEX program.

 This model is very portable for other states.  In fact Hawaii has some concentration of VEX Teams in Hilo Hawaii.  You can find the names by searching robotevents.com

Andrew Dahlen

Mechatronics Instructor

VEX Robotics Coordinator

Northland Community and Technical College

Greetings Jeremy,

I was a Lego League coach for 10 years so I appreciate your sentiments. 

The question about parents meaningfully involved is a challenge for these programs.  It is important for the competition to remain student centered.  Parents, coaches, and mentors can not do the work.  We refer to parent designed and built robots as "daddy bots" and "mommy bots".  For STEM programs to be meaningful the students need to do the work and that means that they will occasionally fail.  FYI, fails stand for "First Attempt In Learning".  Students learn more when they try and fail vs. watching the parent or mentor do the work.  Also when there is a challenge during an event parents need to let the students handle it on their own.  We need to teach our youth how face adverse situations straight on.  Find the facts, cite the specific rules and regulations, provide evidence, keep calm, and respect the decisions of the volunteer staff.  Parental contributions are welcome, but we need to direct their efforts in such a way that the students are making decisions for the team.  

On another note, I had a conversation with a girls basketball coach a while back.  Girls basketball is relatively new.  He stated years ago parents of girl players were uninterested.  Things really changed when the girls who themselves played back in high school had daughters of their own playing in high school.  When this happened the parental contribution and drive turned up to 11.  I believe as robotics competitions mature as an intellectual sport, the sons and daughters of robotics alumnus will be overwhelmed by parental support.  This could be a really interesting research topic.

The VEX competitions rubrics also encourage teamwork: "Students can explain how multiple team members contributed to the robot design and game strategy. All students answer questions independently."  I have judged many competitions and find it encouraging when each member speaks directly about their contribution to the team.  Of course this is not always the case.  Some teams have one dominant member which is clear in the interviews.  When everyone brings a contribution to the team effort, the results are apparent in the judges assessment.  

Andrew Dahlen

Mechatronics Instructor

VEX Robotics Coordinator

Northland Community and Technical College

Hi Nick,

I think a mixture of the soft skills and technical experience help to build a strong foundation that can be built upon for the rest of their lives. Comfort with technology and troubleshooting, even small issues with their equipment, builds confidence in the participants. Soft skills allow for team building which not only encourages different ways of thinking but also allows the participants a comfort level with their peers. They may be more likely to seek out different opinions or viewpoints which in turn would make for a better technician as they would have the ability to approach the same problem in multiple ways in order to arrive at a solution.

Good peer interaction coupled with a healthy competitive environment drives interest and innovation, setting students up for a STEM career that they have already associated with fun, friends and a bit of a challenge!

Zack Nicklin

Co-Principle Investigator, National Center for Autonomous Technologies (NCAT)

UAS Program Manager, Northland Community and Technical College

Hi Nick,

I think a mixture of the soft skills and technical experience help to build a strong foundation that can be built upon for the rest of their lives. Comfort with technology and troubleshooting, even small issues with their equipment, builds confidence in the participants. Soft skills allow for team building which not only encourages different ways of thinking but also allows the participants a comfort level with their peers. They may be more likely to seek out different opinions or viewpoints which in turn would make for a better technician as they would have the ability to approach the same problem in multiple ways in order to arrive at a solution.

Good peer interaction coupled with a healthy competitive environment drives interest and innovation, setting students up for a STEM career that they have already associated with fun, friends and a bit of a challenge!

Zack Nicklin

Co-Principle Investigator, National Center for Autonomous Technologies (NCAT)

UAS Program Manager, Northland Community and Technical College

Hi Mark, 

Thank you for the comment! We had a video production team come in to the MN Vex Robotics State Championship Tournament and the first MN RAD Aerial Drone Competition to shoot a series of five videos (this one included) for NCAT. We see and understand the power of video as an outreach tool and plan to utilize these videos to reach a broader network of students, parents, teachers and the workforce.