SUMMARY

Iron Mechs is a high school robotics team from Haymarket, Virginia, that recently participated in the 2024 Vex Robotics World Championship in Dallas, Texas.

In this interview, we hear from members of the team, including their incredibly supportive parents and coaches, as they recount their journey to the robotics championship. Learn how they persevered through long hours and failed tests to build their robot and earned a spot to compete with top teams from across the world.

Directions: Watch the interview clip above and then answer the questions below.

You can make a Google doc copy of discussion questions that work for any of the stories here.

WARM-UP QUESTIONS

1. How many pages of failed tests filled Iron Mechs' engineering notebooks this year?
2. What were some of the ways that the team fundraised for the competition?
3. What does VEX provide each team with for building their robot?
4. How many hours has the Iron Mechs team worked on their robot this year?
5. What are some of the skills the kids have learned in school that they've applied to robotics?

FOCUS QUESTIONS

While building their robot, the Iron Mechs team faced a lot of failures. Why do you think it was important for them to keep going? Do you think they achieved their goal? Explain your response.

Media literacy: Before watching the video, did you know robotics was a competitive sport? Do you participate in an activity outside of school that requires a similar amount of time and work?

Alternative: See, Think, Wonder: What did you notice? What did the story make you think? What would you want to learn more about?

FOR MORE

What students can do:

1. Interested in learning more about robotics? Organizations like VEX, First and Best Robotics have fun courses on a variety of topics and information on taking part in competitions.
2. Learn about entrepreneurship and how inventors as young as five-years-old patent their inventions by watching this video lesson with Dr. Kathi Vidal, Under Secretary of Commerce for Intellectual Property and Director of the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).
3. Read this Student Voice piece from our Invention Education Collection to hear from one student inventor about how inventing is open to everyone and is rewarding for far more reasons than just building STEM skills.

This post was written and produced by Gianfranco Beran, a senior at Amherst College and an intern with PBS NewsHour Classroom, and edited by NewsHour's Vic Pasquantonio.

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