June 30, 2022 | Lorain City Schools is excited to announce that its VEX Robotics competition robotics program will be open to all middle and high school students in the fall with the creation of the Lorain Titans Robotics Team.
The highly-successful Longfellow Middle School Robotics Program is expanding its reach to all students in grades 7-12 with the new Lorain Titans Robotics Hub located at Longfellow Middle School, 305 Louisiana Ave., Lorain.
The Longfellow program is an established program that has been engaging students in Lorain City Schools for seven years and, during that time, has qualified for the VEX Robotics World Championship four times. It is now time to expand, giving students at Gen. Johnnie Wilson and Southview middle schools, as well as Lorain High School, the chance to be a part of the team.
The new team name, the Lorain Titans Robotics Team, and the new team logo signify a growing program that will engage all Lorain Titans in the STEM-based program that pushes students to problem solve, collaborate, and work as a team to code, design, and engineer one-of-a-kind competition robots.
Led by Longfellow teacher Denise Fahrney, the Longfellow coaches have been working hard this summer to create the new Lorain Titans Robotics Hub, which will give Gen. Johnnie Wilson, Southview, Longfellow, and Lorain High students the space to come together to develop middle and high school teams that will be ready to compete against some of the best VEX Robotics programs in the state, country, and world. Students from Gen. Johnnie Wilson, Southview, and Lorain High will receive transportation to Longfellow during the school year.
“The Lorain Titans Robotics Hub is going to allow the Lorain Titans Robotics program to become even stronger than it was,” said Fahrney. “It will allow all students to work together under one umbrella, including middle and high school students, who will collaborate and problem-solve in a shared space.
“A hub environment has proven to be a highly successful model among the top-ranking programs in the state and country. We are looking forward to this. It has been a desire for the past few years that we grow the Longfellow Robotics Team, and that time has finally come.”
Fahrney said students interested in robotics but who imagine building robotics engineered for battle will be blown away by the vast design possibilities VEX Robotics offers with endless ways to engineer robots for the intricate VEX Robotics games.
The 2022-2023 Vex Robotics game is called Spin Up and challenges teams to attain a higher score than their opposing team in a fun game reminiscent of frisbee golf. Each year, VEX Robotics changes its competition game, which prevents teams from growing stagnant and encourages students to solve new problems and master unique challenges.
VEX Robotics is a leading provider of educational and competitive robotics products to schools, universities, and robotics teams worldwide. Beyond science and engineering principles, a VEX Robotics project encourages teamwork, leadership, and problem solving among groups. It allows educators to easily customize projects to meet the level of each student’s abilities as they inspire and prepare the STEM problem-solvers of tomorrow.
VEX believes that all students are natural scientists and engineers. They love to question, tinker, experiment and play. VEX competitions foster these skills and capitalize on the motivational effects of competitions and robotics to help all students create an identity as a STEM-learner.
VEX competitions are also a great way to expose students to valuable soft skills like communication, collaboration, and time management in a fun and authentic way. VEX Robotics prepares students to become future innovators, with 95% of participants reporting an increased interest in STEM subject areas and pursuing STEM-related careers.
The Lorain Titans Robotics Team season will start the first week of August with a one-week camp/tryout and end in April if (or when) the Titan team qualifies for the 2023 Vex Robotics World Championship.
Students who want to be part of the action are encouraged to come and see the new Lorain Titans Robotics Hub and see a robot in action during a summer open house from 3-5 PM on Tuesday, July 19, 2022 at Longfellow Middle School in rooms 190/186.