The Sacramento County Office of Education (SCOE) today hosted 20 student teams in a mock VEX Robotics competition. Students represent schools from throughout the Sacramento region.
The mock competition served as an opportunity for new engineering pathway teachers and their students to gain competition experience. The event was staged to generate interest in a possible sanctioned robotics competition next year.
The participating students attend schools that are part of the CRANE (Capital Region Academies for the Next Economy) consortium, which includes 22 school districts in seven counties. It is the largest and most ambitious Career Pathway implementation strategy in California—if not the nation.
In competitions, teams of students design and build a robot, then play against other teams in a game-based engineering challenge. They apply the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) concepts they are learning in school. Through robotics competitions, students learn valuable engineering skills, as well as life skills including teamwork, perseverance, communication, collaboration, project management, and critical thinking.
Award Winners
- Overall Team Winners: Granite Bay (Team 1) and Granite Bay (Team 5)
- Amaze Award: Granite Bay (Team 7)
- Build Award: Natomas (Team 18)
- Create Award: Granite Bay (Team 1)
- Innovate Award: Granite Bay (Team 7)
- Sportsmanship Award: Wheatland (Team 9)
Rigorous career pathways have been one of the most proven education improvement strategies over the last 40 years. Students in career pathways outperform their peers in academic achievement, graduation, post-secondary enrollment, and—in some cases—life-long earnings. Additionally, career pathways deliver challenging academics and equip students with the skills they need to succeed in post-secondary pursuits and the workplace.