A national competition that aims to get young people excited about STEM is set to be held over the 3-4th of April.
The 2021 New Zealand VEX Robotics Competition (VRC) National Championships will be presented by Kiwibots (The New Zealand Charitable Trust) and held in partnership with the REC Foundation, VEX Robotics and Auckland Unlimited.
Australian and New Zealand sales director for VEX Robotics, Nicole Champagne, says the company wants to see a world where students can be inspired by the excitement of hands-on, minds-on STEM learning.
“Students thrive with hands-on STEM experiences and we love to see this come to life with competitive robotics. They are learning the most important skills across the subjects of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) which will provide them the problem-solving skills for our future work force. We are passionate about VEX Robotics in the classroom but know the best opportunity to learn soft skills such as collaboration, communication, time management, problem solving, iteration and developing computational thinking come from competitive robotics.”
National manager of Kiwibots in New Zealand, Janet Van, says: “For many of these students, their future careers may not even exist yet. Programmes and competitions like these ensure we future-proof all young kids/tamariki with the skills that will mean they are prepared for the technological world that awaits them.”
SMC Corporation Australia New Zealand is a sponsor at this year’s event and a representative will be part of the judging panel.