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Re: Quitting FRC for Vex?
1678 has added Vex in the classroom setting as the basis for our "Intro to Robotics Engineering" class. This class was launched in the fall and we had over 100 new high school students across four periods in the class. The robust curriculum and engaging competition makes Vex an ideal program for the classroom setting. We will continue to use Vex as the basis for our high school intro class.
1678 is, for the first time, organizing 4-8 grade robotics summer camps in June. We are dropping our FLL support (after starting 23 teams!) and running Vex IQ at the summer camp. I am already impressed with the summer camp curriculum that Vex IQ offers, it is so simple the implement.
For our after-school elementary and junior high team, we are switching to Vex IQ starting now (parent meeting is June 3!). To ease the transition, we will likely buy kits for most or all of our existing FLL teams, and let them trade in their FLL kits which we will sell or donate to outside programs. The reasons to switch are many, but the main motivators are getting out of a broken NorCalFLL system and saving thousands of dollars in registration costs on a annual basis.
And, to be honest, if at some point we loose some critical teachers and/or mentors, I think the students on 1678 could be better served through 10-12 Vex Teams rather than 1 FRC team. We don't want to run both in the after school setting (rather, we are focusing on off-season projects and outreach efforts). However, without the solid mentor foundation we have, I believe our students would be better served building Vex robots.
When I look in my robotics education crystal ball, the future is Vex. It scales better, has far less financial overhead, and can be effectively run by organized parents out of a family living room. I don't know what the robotics landscape will look like in 10 years (#4champs?), but I would be willing to bet Vex is a huge part of that landscape.
-Mike
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