Share
LinkedIn sharing Hawaiian Electric
X sharing Hawaiian Electric
Facebook sharing Hawaiian Electric
Email sharing Hawaiian Electric

Hawaii VEX IQ Championships qualifies 7 elementary and middle school robotics teams for World event in Dallas, TX

(Issued by Hawaii Space Grant Consortium)

Release Date: 2/21/2024

Download PDF

HONOLULU, Feb. 21, 2024 – Sponsored by Hawaiian Electric, the Hawaii VEX IQ Robotics Elementary and Middle School Regional Championships, held on February 17 and 19 at Ewa Makai Middle School, qualified 7 out of 59 Hawaii VEX robotics teams that will advance to the 2024 VEX Robotics World Championships. The VEX IQ Competition and VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) are separate robotics programs with different game challenges, rules, robot hardware, and fields.

Hawaii elementary and middle school robotics teams will showcase their game strategy, design and teamwork skills for an opportunity to be crowned world champions at the global event to be held April 25 to May 3 in Dallas, Texas.

Advancing from Oahu are Haleiwa Elementary School (1 team), Manoa Elementary School (1 team), Hawaii Girl Power (1 team), and Wheeler Middle School (1 team).

At the elementary school competition, Manoa Elementary’s Green Tigers team earned the VEX IQ Excellence Award, while Haleiwa Elementary captured the Design Award. Both teams allianced together in the finals match and also were crowned the Teamwork Champions.

At the middle school competition, Hawaii Girl Power earned the VEX IQ Excellence and shared the Teamwork Champion with Wheeler Middle School, which also won the Think Award.

The double qualifications by these teams will allow three other Hawaii teams – to be determined by the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation – to advance to the VEX Worlds.

For a complete list of team standings at the Hawaii VEX Robotics State Championships, visit:

Hawaiian Electric, Ewa Makai Middle School, and Makaha Elementary School were named “Partners of the Year” for their long-standing support and partnership with Hawaii VEX Robotics.

Volunteer of the Year honor was awarded to Evan Meserve and the students of Team Magma from Kalani High School. Evan serves as both a Judge and Judge Advisor and supported the judging process at various tournaments this season. Team Magma students filled key volunteer roles at multiple VEX IQ tournaments across Oahu.

Mentor of the Year was awarded to Mrs. Summer Cretton of Pukalani Elementary School, and Kumu Hui and Coach Jodi from Haili Christian School for their dedication and support to their students this season.

VEX Robotics is an educational robotics program that inspires students to excel in STEM principles while encouraging creativity, teamwork, leadership and problem solving among groups. The VEX IQ Competition is for grades 4-8 while VRC is for grades 6-12. This season there were 250 registered teams from Hawaii and over 900 students.

Robotics competitions foster these skills and prepare students to become future innovators as well as increase their interest in pursuing STEM careers. Tournaments are held year-round at the regional, state and national levels, and culminate in the VEX Robotics World Championship. There are approximately 20,000 teams from 45 countries participating in VEX tournaments.

Locally, the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium (HSGC) oversees the Hawaii VEX Robotics Competitions with funding through the University of Hawaii Foundation. Expanded opportunities for space education through the efforts of the Hawaii Space Grant Consortium have been focused on the public, particularly teachers and students in grades kindergarten through twelve. HSGC offers various remote and in-person trainings and workshops for coaches, teachers, and students, developing a robotics curriculum for STEM/robotics classes, and mentored teachers and students in rookie robotics programs.