NISD Elementary Robotics Tournament (K-5)

"Machinery on a Mission: Space Race"

Overview:

Northwest Independent School District (NISD) is dedicated to preparing students for the future by cultivating a culture of learning and collaboration with students, families, communities, and global partners. In alignment with this mission, since its inception in 2018, the Instructional Technology department has hosted an elementary robotics tournament designed to inspire students' creativity, problem-solving, and technical skills. Since its inception, the tournament has continued to grow, empowering students to develop critical thinking and teamwork skills while embracing the excitement of robotics and innovation.

Participants in this tournament will build and program their robots, gaining valuable experience in engineering, coding, and problem-solving. Over the years, the tournament themes have evolved, featuring topics such as shipping, receiving, manufacturing, and space. As they take on the different challenges, students will develop persistence, teamwork, and collaboration skills, working together to overcome obstacles.

This year's tournament will challenge students to design robotic solutions for space-themed tasks that are difficult, costly, time-consuming, or too dangerous for humans. Key aspects of the event include:

Encouraging collaboration, creativity, and imaginative thinking.
Time-limited challenges, with scoring based on successful task completion, will contribute to determining the Space Race's overall winner.
Teams of up to four members will be assigned one robot during the competition.
The tournament features six grade-level robot categories: Spike Prime (grades 3-5), VEX Go (grades 3-5), Ozobot (grades K-2 and 3-5), and Dash (grades K-2 and 3-5).
Each elementary school is invited to participate by sending one top team in each of the six categories. Campuses have complete autonomy in organizing their campus-level clubs or local competitions. Each school will send its top team to represent one or more categories and must bring their playing fields to the district tournament.
The district-wide tournament will be hosted at Gene Pike Middle School on May 6th, 2025.

The goal of this tournament is to provide a fun, engaging experience that promotes creativity, problem-solving, and coding skills with their robots, all while fostering a spirit of teamwork and collaboration.

Campus Team Prep and Competition:	Campuses have complete autonomy to manage their robotic clubs and local campus competitions. Each campus will only send one team from each of the robotic divisions to the district tournament at Pike Middle School on the evening of Tuesday, May 6th.
Registration:	Monday after Spring Break 2025 TEAM MUST BE REGISTERED TO PARTICIPATE AT DISTRICT LEVEL
Peer Evaluations:	Check back for more information after Spring Break 2025
Judging:	Tuesday, May 6th - Gene Pike Middle School
Results Announced:	Hopefully that night or within the next few days

WHO WANTS TO WIN? Awards are in!!

NEF Awards for VR.png

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Check out these campus robotic clubs as they are working through the challenges.

Cox Virtual Robotics

Nance Virtual Robotics

Schluter Virtual Robotics