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The Community Award Online Challenge Sponsored by Google
This year’s Community Award will be presented to VRC or VEX U teams that are helping or supporting their local community throughout the pandemic. How are you connecting, as a team, to make a difference in your community when in-person connections are limited?
Activities may include, but are not limited to:
- Team created a public service announcement to encourage social distancing practices using VEX robots
- Team organized food drives
- Team organized a robot parade for the neighborhood
- Team built robots that perform tasks to support COVID-19 efforts
- Team programmed a robot to lift someone’s spirits… like those in care facilities who must stay indoors and out of contact with other people or for front-line workers
Additionally, the submission will be judged on creativity and quality of the video.
The submission will be a video not to exceed 3 minutes, including credits, that highlights the team’s community-wide contributions. The video will be posted or uploaded to a video streaming service, and a link to the video will be submitted through the REC Foundation Online Challenge website.
| Elementary School | Middle School | High School | College / University | No Grade Level Restrictions |
| VEX V5 Robotics Competition | VEX U Robotics Competition |
Prizes
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The REC Foundation will recognize 10 VEX Robotics teams with the Community Award at the VEX Robotics World Championship. The prize will include:
- $500 gift certificate for vexrobotics.com.
- Automatic team qualification and paid registration fee for this season’s VEX Worlds.
Eligibility
- Entrant Grade Range: VRC Middle School, VRC High School, or VEX U
- VEX Robotics Competition team requirements: Must be part of a registered VRC or VEX U team for the 2020-2021 Season.
- Designs submitted in previous years’ Online Challenges are not eligible for submission for this Online Challenge
- Only one entry per team is permitted. However, each team in a multi-team school or club program may submit one entry. For example, teams 123A and 123B could each submit an entry, but team 123A could not submit two entries.
Requirements
These are the minimum requirements for this challenge. The “Judging Information" section below will provide additional guidance on how your project will be judged. Failure to fulfill any of these requirements will result in your entry being disqualified from advancing to Finalist.
- Create an inspiring advertisement or short movie as a video highlighting your team’s community service, not to exceed 3 minutes long including credits.
- Credits must be provided and shall include the title of the video, team number, team name, and any other relevant credits such as music.
- All material must be original or in the public domain (for example, music must be in the public domain).
- Post or upload the video to YouTube, SchoolTube, Youku, or an equivalent platform. Save the link to the posted or uploaded video as you will need this for the submission through the REC Foundation Online Challenge website.
- Links to Google Drive or Dropbox or any other “cloud drive” are not permitted and do not meet the requirements.
- Follow all social distancing guidelines in team’s community.
- Optional: Include a short statement in English of up to 50 words describing what we see in the video and explaining your intent to the judges. Note that your submission can still be selected as a Finalist if you choose not to write a statement.
READ CAREFULLY: HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR VIDEO LINK CORRECTLY
- Instructions to add video link to your entry:
- Click the green Enter Challenge button on the right side of the screen.
- Fill out the submission form and type your text in the Full Description box according to the Requirements for this challenge.
- Click Save.
- Click the blue Links/Videos button in the upper right of the screen.
- Type in the URL, Title and Description. Include all required information, or your link may not display correctly.
- Click Add Link.
- Your submission will now show when you click the blue All Entries button to view the challenge entries.
Judging Information
Judges will select 25 finalists and those finalists will be reviewed by an additional panel of pre-selected professionals, and those scores will be combined with the initial scores to determine the winners of this Online Challenge. Community voting results will play a role in a tie-breaker scenario.
The judges will evaluate and score each entry as follows:
Up to 5 points for student team member(s) creating and producing the video*
Up to 30 points for clearly stating in the video
- Who they are helping in the community?
- Why they picked this recipient?
- What they did and how it helped them?
Teams can communicate verbally, via graphics, illustrations, or in writing such as cue cards, etc
Up to 30 points for the content that tells your story. Scoring will be based on:
- How well the video meets the requirements of the challenge
- The type of project, activity, or event that the team used to answer the challenge
- How well the team used imagery, graphics, and effects to tell a story.
- How engaging and well-designed was the entry?
Up to 20 points for a well-structured, complete video that contains a clear beginning, middle, and end. The video can include graphics, photos, or special effects to support the story being told. Is your Video creative, well made with good camera work, editing and sound quality?
*Students should be the sole creators of this submission. It is acceptable for adults to assist with downloading any necessary resources or submitting the story where students may need permission.
Deadline Information
Current time:
Sat, Oct 12, 2024 5:21 AM CDT
Opens:
Mon, Oct 12, 2020 9:00 AM CDT
Closes:
Thu, Dec 31, 2020 12:00 PM CST
Voting Ends:
Fri, Jan 8, 2021 12:00 PM CST