How Robotics Competitions Bring Kids Together

Students learn necessary skills through robotics in the classroom. It's incredible to watch them use those skills and imagination to design and build a robot. And as an individual student, that's just cool.

What if students could take their skills to an even higher level? With a robotics competition, they can. During their younger years and through high school, robotics competitions let students share personal knowledge and skills in a team activity. Students take on team roles that help the group accomplish a shared goal, like programmer, designer, engineer, coder, or troubleshooter.

What Your Students Gain From Their First Robotics Competition

There are many benefits to kids participating in team competitions, especially using computer science skills. Even if they’re new to the challenge they can learn quickly and have fun in the process. We explore the benefits below.

Collaboration

Collaboration is often an underestimated yet crucial skill. According to the National Education Association, collaborative learning helps students develop higher-level thinking, social, interpersonal, and leadership skills.

Collaboration is an essential 21st Century Skill, one that employers look for when hiring new team members. It's a skill they can start learning today through fun activities like a robotics competition. These competitions encourage kids to share and listen to ideas with peers and develop a strategy for reaching a goal.

Kids learn time management, resourcing, emotional control, and how to support and inspire one another.

Connection

Healthy connections with peers aid in the positive development of kids. They learn to trust, support, and discern between good and bad relationships. Interacting with others improves language development, social skills, sharing, cooperating, listening, and communication. It also teaches kids how to respect boundaries.

Participating in a global robotics competition allows students to make worldwide connections. This can lead to them learning how to work with students from different cultures and backgrounds, which may be a part of their work environment in the future.

Leadership

In a robotics competition, students of all ages can learn leadership skills. Throughout life, there will be times when a person needs to be a leader and times when they need to follow a leader. These are skills that can develop and grow over time.

Leadership skills help students feel confident in making decisions and feel more in control of a situation. Feeling in control reduces anxiety and the desire to withdraw. In a robotics competition, kids can enhance leadership skills by learning to collaborate, solve problems, take responsibility, and become self-aware.

Giving students roles like programmer, debugger, engineer, designer, and mission manager makes them feel important and gives them the opportunity to develop expertise in their area. They take their role seriously and want to prove they can be successful.

Creativity

Creativity goes hand in hand with science. It's true. There is an actual scientific process that can help kids develop their creativity. This process is perfect for kids participating in a robotics competition. The process involves preparation, where kids will gather information, brainstorm, think deeply, and develop a plan of action. It also involves taking time to consider options and reasoning before deciding on a solution. Finally, critical thinking helps hone ideas and troubleshoot problems.

Fun

Kids are more motivated and retain more information if they are having fun while learning. Doing so inspires them to continue learning. Plus, having fun activates "feel good" chemicals like dopamine in the brain. Kids are happier when they are having fun. They will associate their happiness with learning activities, like robotics competitions.

Competitions help students have fun individually and as a group. Healthy competitiveness engages students and lets them know curiosity is a good thing. Robotics competitions, like the Sphero Global Challenge, can also teach kids that you can still have fun and learn, even if you don't take home the top prize.

Robotics Competitions: The Takeaway

Benefits like these prepare PK–12 students for higher-level education and future employment. With these skills refined, they can better navigate the unexpected personally and professionally.

It's never too late to get kids involved with a robotics competition or other STEAM activities. Numerous programs combine challenges with fun learning and personal achievement at home, school, and in social settings. You can learn more and register for the Sphero Global Challenge here. Your kids will love it!