“You almost can’t do anything any more that does not (involve) S.T.E.A.M.,” says Robotics Education and Competition Foundation Community Innovations Manager Nancy McIntyre.

Nancy, who will be giving two presentations at this week’s California STEAM Symposium, in Long Beach, CA, is a former teacher and robotics coach.

And she’s discussing teaching students skills for today’s job market, through hands-on experience.

That experience? Designing and constructing competition robots, as participants in nonprofit REC Foundation’s family of VEX Robotics programs.

From elementary school through college level, REC Foundation offers VEX Robotics curricula. Student teams collaborate on creating their robots, then entering them in a competition. In a game setting, the students’ robots complete tasks, with the winners of each round going on to the next level.

Far-reaching inspiration

More than a million students, in 70 countries, participate in the program, according to REC Foundation’s website. And annually, the top 3,000 teams–from all over the world–come together for the world’s largest robotics competition, which will be happening this April in Dallas.

While the students are having fun, though, they’re also learning skills they couldn’t get in a classroom. These include team collaboration, problem-solving and effective communication.

REC Foundation has even published a “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book, subtitled, “Inspiring Students, One Robot at a Time,” in which they share the stories of a number of students, as well as educators, who have seen the VEX program change lives.

Nancy explained some of the ways the program is guiding students towards future careers, shared a preview of the two sessions she’ll be hosting at California STEAM Symposium and offered a preview of the upcoming VEX Robotics World Championship.

On this edition of Over Coffee® we cover:

• How Nancy first became inspired to use robots to get her students engaged in engineering;

• An “arts” application of robotics that may not occur to most students!

• A preview of Nancy’s two sessions, February 9th, at the California STEAM Symposium;

• A closer look at some of the stories published in REC Foundation’s “Chicken Soup for the Soul” book, and how they illustrate the ways VEX Robotics’ activities inspire students;

• What’s going to be happening at the VEX Robotics World Championships in April;

• How building robots and entering competitions helps students gain skills for today’s workforce;

• How RECF is evolving its programs in response to the explosion of AI;

• What someone starting a team can expect, and how to start!;

• How you can support nonprofit Robotics Education and Competition Foundation (and what they especially need, in the way of virtual volunteers, as theVEX Robotics World Championship approaches).