This week marked our first hands-on session with the new Beaumont Vex Robotics team, and their coach, Mr Wilson. The girls gathered, got acquainted with the robot kit, any started exploring how the various building pieces and components fit together. They also watched the game-reveal video for the season and discussed the exciting challenge ahead.
What is the Game this Season?
The 2025-26 game for VEX IQ is called “Mix & Match”.
Here’s a summary of the key points of the game:
- The field is a 6 × 8 ft rectangular playing surface.
- The scoring objects are Pins and Beams.
- The primary objective: build Stacks out of Pins and Beams, and place those stacks into Goals.
- Additional scoring details include:
- Each connected Pin counts for 1 point.
- Each connected Beam counts for 10 points.
- If a stack contains 2 colours, there is a 5-point bonus; if 3 colours, a 15-point bonus.
- If a stack is placed in a Goal whose colour matches the stack, and/or connected to a Beam, there is a 10-point bonus.
- Additional minor scoring: cleared starting pins, robot contact with scoring objects at end of match.
Teams will compete in two formats:
- Teamwork Challenge: two robots (an alliance) work together during 60-second teamwork matches.
- Robot Skills Challenge: one robot attempts to score as many points as possible in a driver-controlled match, and in separate autonomous coding matches.
This game offers plenty of opportunities for creativity (in how the stacks are built), strategy (which colours, which goals, how to partner with the other robot), and technical challenge (designing mechanisms that can reliably build stacks, place them, and perhaps connect beams)
Why This Matters – The Benefits for Our Students
Participating in this robotics competition brings a wide range of benefits for the girls on the team, beyond just “we built a robot”. Here are some of the key benefits we anticipate:
1. STEM Skills in Action:
They will develop engineering design skills (planning, prototyping, testing), mechanical building skills (constructing the robot), programming skills (to make the robot do what is intended), and problem-solving (when things don’t work first time). The format of the competition encourages iteration, thinking about “what if”, “what works”, and “how can we improve”.
2. Collaboration & Teamwork:
Since the competition involves working as part of an alliance and also blending roles (build-engineer, programmer, driver, etc), the girls will practise cooperation, communication, shared decision-making and accountability. These are key life skills as well as team-skills.
3. Growth Mindset / Resilience:
Robotics builds an environment where failure is expected (a mechanism might not work, a code might crash, a stack might fall). Learning how to respond — reflect, revise, improve — is a powerful outcome.
4. Creativity & Innovation:
With a game like “Mix & Match”, where the objective is open (build stacks, maximise points, strategise with colours and goals), there is space for creative solutions — the girls will get to invent, test, prototype, iterate and refine their ideas.
5. Exposure to Coding & Technology:
They will get hands on experience with robotics platforms, likely programming (block-based or partial text-based) and see how software and hardware come together in real-world style challenges.
6. Future-Ready Skills:
Skills like design thinking, coding, hands-on building, teamwork, troubleshooting, communication — these align strongly with future academic and career readiness, especially in a STEM-rich world.
