Challenge Overview

This is the mission and vision for the Robotics Education and Competition Foundation (RECF):  

Mission

The Robotics Education & Competition Foundation’s global mission is to provide every educator with competition, education, and workforce readiness programs to increase student engagement in science, technology, engineering, math, and computer science.

Vision

We see a future where every student designs and innovates as part of a team, overcomes failure, perseveres, and emerges confident in their ability to meet global challenges.

For this challenge we ask your team to take a look at your experience in the RECF programs and explain how it has helped your team develop STEM and workforce skills. You can share how your team has overcome failure, persevered as you designed and improved ideas, or communicated and collaborated as you worked as a team. Your video should clearly explain how RECF programs have helped you build these workforce skills to prepare you for future education, careers, and the workforce, and how that fulfills the RECF mission and vision.

Project Requirements & Components:

Your submission consists of a video presentation. To complete this challenge and be eligible for the prizes and awards you need to successfully submit a video within the requirements.

Video Presentation

• Maximum Video Length: 3 minutes 15 seconds
• Beginning: Video should have a 5-second beginning that includes:
  • Challenge name and season year
  • Your program (e.g., RECF Achieve)
  • Your team number (e.g., Team 111B)
• Ending: Video should have 10-second ending credits that include:
  • Challenge name 
  • Team name and number 
  • Sources (if any are used) 
• Video Submission: Submit a public link to your video.
  • The video must be publicly accessible through the submitted link and viewable by judges without requiring a password or sign-in
  • Teams should test the submitted link before submitting
• Bonus Points: Your team will receive 2 bonus points if your video has closed captioning. 

Step 1

Start by taking a look at RECF mission and vision. As a team brainstorm how your participation in an RECF supported program is growing you as a team or as a person. Consider questions such as:

• How has participating increased your engagement in science, technology, engineering, math, and computer science subjects?
• How has participating allowed you to design and innovate in ways that you would not have done if you were not part of an RECF program?
• In what ways have RECF programs allowed you to work on workforce skills like working as a team, overcoming failure, persevering, problem solving, communication, collaboration, and others? 

Step 2

As a team, discuss how the skills you learn by participating in an RECF program might be valuable to you after this season. Give specific examples of what this could look like in future years. You can answer the questions below or create your own questions. 

• How will teamwork help you in school or a future career?
• How will problem solving help you handle difficult situations?
• How will communication help you work with teachers, teammates, coworkers, or employers?
• How will perseverance help you when you face failure?
• How will learning from mistakes help you improve future projects?
• How might your STEM experience influence your education or career choices?

Step 3

Create a script and turn your discussions about the skills you have learned, specific examples,  experiences, and how it may affect you in the future into a 3-minute video presentation. 

Whenever possible, show rather than just tell how your team learned, struggled, improved, and grew through actual experiences within your team. Be sure to provide specific examples on how the program has developed your workforce skills and explain how the skills you developed through an RECF program will help you in the future.  

The video should be engaging, organized, personal, and focused on your team’s real experience with STEM and workforce skills, and how you see this fulfilling the RECF mission and vision. 

Final Reminders Before Submitting

• Be sure you thoroughly followed the instructions and clearly presented how your participation in an RECF program has fulfilled the RECF mission and vision, including specific examples rather than general statements.
• Confirm that your short video follows the instructions and is uploaded to a public site for easy submission and viewing, and that no password is needed. 
• Double-check that your video is properly named for submission.
• By submitting a video to this challenge, you confirm that you and your parent(s)/guardian(s) consent to your submission being posted, shared, or otherwise displayed by RECF on social media, web pages, or events, including during the ceremonies in the dome during the RECF World Championship. 

Challenge Success

Your team will be successful if you can demonstrate, not just describe, how participation in an RECF program has helped you fulfill the RECF mission and vision by learning STEM and workforce skills. The strongest projects will show this by exploring and explaining how personal experiences have changed or prepared team members for the future and connect these skills to future education and careers.