The 2024 VEX Robotics World Championship was held in Dallas, Texas, on April 25-May 3, 2024.
At this year's VEX Robotics World Championship, NewsHour Classroom interviewed Jason McKenna on the importance of a STEM education, his experience as a teacher and how robotics and project-based learning foster student agency.
McKenna is the Vice President of Global Educational Strategy for VEX Robotics, a long-time former teacher and published author. His current role involves working with stakeholders in STEM education – from students and parents to educators and policymakers. This enables him to understand and address the challenges of preparing students for a successful future.
“It's always been my vision and dream to bring together educators from all over the world and have them collaborate with one another,” McKenna said, “…and talk about the issues that they have in their classroom, talk about their successes and their failures.”
The VEX Robotics Educators Conference took place alongside VEX World's, which offered teachers and others the opportunity to start — or strengthen — their robotics program and maybe even make it to nationals one day.
McKenna is the author of several published works including his 2023 book, "What STEM Can Do for Your Classroom: Improving Student Problem Solving, Collaboration, and Engagement." His focus on what STEM for all really means includes strategies to engage and motivate students by giving them a voice and choice in their learning experience.
Learn more about the 2024 VEX Robotics World Championship through one team's journey using this Daily News Lesson.
For lessons related to invention education, see PBS NewsHour Classroom's Invention Education collection. To learn about Classroom's Invention Ed Teacher Fellowship, read the article "Get to Know the 2023-2024 Invention Education Fellows." Would you like to write a piece or submit a video for Classroom Voices? Write Vic at vpasquantonio@newshour.org.
This post was produced by Vic Pasquantonio with video editing by Gianfranco Beran, a senior at Amherst College and an intern with PBS NewsHour Classroom.
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