Maui schools shine at VEX IQ Robotics Regional Championships : Maui Now

The Pukalani Elementary School STEM Imagineers team won the Energy Award while the Kaunakakai Elementary School Molokai All Stars team won the Sportsmanship Award at the 2024 Hawaiʻi Elementary and Middle School VEX IQ Robotics Championships held earlier this month on Oʻahu.

In the Middle School competition, Kalama Intermediate School teams won the Teamwork 2nd Place, Robot Skills Champion, Innovate, and Energy Awards, while Maui Waena Intermediate took the Design, Amaze, and Create Awards.

Summer Cretton of Pukalani Elementary was named Mentor of the Year for her longstanding dedication to her students.

Sponsored by Hawaiian Electric, the Hawaiʻi VEX IQ Robotics Elementary and Middle School Regional Championships were held on Feb. 17 and 19 at Ewa Makai Middle School. The competition qualified seven out of 59 Hawaiʻi VEX robotics teams for the 2024 VEX Robotics World Championships. VEX IQ and VRC are separate robotics programs with different game challenges, rules, robot hardware and fields.

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. This season there were 250 registered teams from Hawaiʻi and over 900 students.