Kids track; non-competitive building advice

[Ansel Halliburton]

Hello, club!

My 7th grader loves robots, and is on a Vex Robotics team with some of his classmates. It's a fun activity. However, my observation is that the competition aspect sucks up most of the energy, and drives a lot of unfortunate behavior throughout the league. Locally, so many Bay Area parents are desperate for their kids to get ahead and win, win, win. With all that, plus a tightly prescribed (and expensive) parts list, I don't think the kids learn much, or get to be very creative. 

This season, within a few weeks of the season opening, adult Vex influencers posted their designs (in which zero children participated) to YouTube, and almost everyone's designs immediately converged. It's a huge bummer, if you have goals other than winning by any means.

I really like the challenge approach HBRC has, as a way to establish tangible goals while removing the pressurized competition and the incentives against learning that go with it. I could definitely see kids getting into the TableBot and FloorBot challenges!

Our regular meetings are decently kid friendly, but what does the club think about doing some specific, kid-focused events? Have we ever done that before, and if so, how did it go? What do you all know that I don’t?

What kind of kits or other hardware & software would folks recommend for kids building their own things these days? It seems many curricula and after-school STEM activities are starting with Scratch-like block coding, and then moving to Python around sixth-grade-ish. I know my kid has used Micro:Bit at school, and I’m a big fan of CircuitPython, having used it on both RP2040 and ESP32 microcontrollers.

Here is a related thread from earlier this year:

“ISO: Someone to advise on robotic projects"

https://groups.google.com/g/hbrobotics/c/nkOfwYoiBd4/m/js8C_t5NDgAJ

Thanks for any thoughts!

[Alan Federman]

I have never participated in Vex robotics, but I have been involved in FIRST since 1998. I think FLL(First LEGO League) would probably be a better fit for your child, as cooperation, rather than competition is the focus. 

 

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[Lloyd Dickinson]

I taught I robotics basics to middle schoolers and ran simple completions all using the same robot. Programming was up to them. Was involved a bit with FRC and parents do really dictate was goes on and that does limit learning.  

I like your suggestion. Before 2020 pandemic Robot Garden (a maker space) supported a robotics for kids/young adults. Pandemic knock us down  and we now support FRC teams  and no kids robotics. 

To view this discussion visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hbrobotics/934739893.52478.1765467295066%40connect.xfinity.com.

[A J]

Right, sports and entertainment make up most of our large gatherings.

But some of the Master Chef and Master Lego Builder shows are entertaining.

What about a Jr Shark Tank show where students compete for scholarships?

[camp .]

    We always have Show-and-Tell at our General Meetings (Last Wed). Initially, it was at the end of the meeting, but 20 years ago (or so), we moved it to the front so kids could show (school night). Nothing happens without a deadline. Just build something, or have the kid(s) build something and show it off at one of our monthly meetings. Our "Challenge Meetings" (March, June, Sept) are all Show-and-Tell: https://www.hbrobotics.org/index.php/challenges/

    Having done this for over 44 years, the best advice I can give is to let the kids build the robot they want.   :-] 

Thanks,

Camp

On Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 01:23:17 PM EST, A J <aj48...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have heard that many colleges support esports as a real talent.

But generally, the hardware is an open platform, meaning brands are

available.

A few years back, the FPGA people from HBRC taught a Bot class

and some said they were into Bot battles.

For video games and quad-copters, the skills are more focused.

https://parentingpatch.com/colleges-that-offer-esports-scholarships/

On Thursday, December 11, 2025 at 10:47:47 AM UTC-8 Lloyd Dickinson wrote:

https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/hbrobotics/3b2c424d-0c1f-4a57-9b68-b8ebcbf95ee0n%40googlegroups.com

.