What is VIQRC?
VEX IQ is an educational robotics platform designed for elementary and middle school students (typically ages 9–14) to explore STEM concepts through hands-on learning. It features a snap-together, tool-free construction system that allows students to build and program functional robots, fostering creativity, problem-solving, and teamwork.
VEX IQ is a plastic-based, modular robotics system that includes:
- Structural Components: Beams, plates, gears, wheels, and connectors for building robots.
- Electronics: Smart Motors, sensors (like distance, color, and touch), and a Robot Brain (microcontroller) for controlling the robot.
- Controller: A handheld device with joysticks and buttons for manual operation.
The system is designed to be intuitive, allowing students to assemble robots without prior experience. The 2nd generation Robot Brain offers enhancements like a color screen, built-in inertial sensor, improved wireless connectivity, and a MicroSD card slot.
Competitions
The VEX IQ Robotics Competition provides students with exciting, open-ended robotics and research project challenges that enhance their science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) skills through hands-on, student-centered learning.
The competition includes:
- Teamwork Challenge: Two robots work together in a 60-second match to score points.
- Robot Skills Challenge: Individual robots attempt to score as many points as possible in driving and autonomous programming matches.
Each season features a new game with unique objectives. For example, the 2025–2026 game, “Mix & Match,” involves stacking objects on a 6’ x 8’ field.
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What will be taught?
- Teamwork. Each student will join a team, that team will work together to solve problems by using their Vex IQ robots.
- Introduction to CAD: Computer Aided Drafting. Students will be shown how to create a CAD of their robot to include in their engineering notebook.
- Comprehensive Documentation. Students will be encouraged to prepare an engineering notebook as they document their progress throughout the season.
- Programming. Students will have the opportunity to learn block-based coding, Python, or C++. They will use this code to control their robot and to participate in the autonomous skills competition.
