STATE CENTER — West Marshall will be hosting its first annual VEX-IQ Robotics tournament on Feb. 4. The tournament will be held in the middle school gym from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. There is no cost for the public to attend and a concession stand is available as a fundraiser for the program. Along with the three elementary and three middle school teams from West Marshall, there will be 11 other elementary and middle school teams from Council Bluffs, Waterloo and Vermillion, SD participating.

A VEX-IQ robotics tournament has two parts. The morning will be filled with skills rounds. Teams have three attempts to score points while driving and three attempts to score points with programming. The afternoon will have teamwork qualifying rounds in which two teams are randomly partnered to score as many points as they can together. The day ends with a finals round to determine the tournament teamwork champions.

While all of the skills and qualifying rounds are going on, teams are also being interviewed by judges to learn about their experience with designing, building and modifying the robots and how they work together. They are encouraged to submit an engineering-design notebook that the judges will review. Along with the teamwork and robot skills champions, the judges decide awards for Excellence, Design and a Judges award.

West Marshall began participating in competition robotics last year with two middle school teams that competed in two tournaments followed by the state tournament and an invitation to VEX Worlds in Dallas in May. The number of teams expanded to six this year with the addition of another middle school team and three elementary teams. Coaches Mari Haley and Dawn Diser have taken teams to five tournaments this season, traveling more than 2,000 miles. Every team has been to at least two competitions and continue to learn and improve in design and skills each time.

The teams have already brought home several trophies this year including several Design Awards, a Teamwork Champion Award and a Teamwork 2nd Place award. Two of the teams received invitations to the CREATE US Open tournament in Council Bluffs in late March. It will feature 110 teams from across the country. All six teams have qualified for the state championship in mid-February.