STEM SCHOOL ROBOTICS

Mission Statement

Our mission is to empower students to become innovative thinkers, collaborative problem-solvers, and confident leaders through hands-on robotics experiences. We strive to cultivate real-world skills in engineering, coding, communication, and strategic planning by engaging in competitive challenges and community partnerships. Through teamwork, creativity, and resilience, we prepare our members to thrive in future careers and contribute meaningfully to a rapidly evolving world.

Who We Are

STEM School Pythons are proud to be an up and coming REC foundation VEX Robotics competitive program. Our first competitive season was in '21-'22. We started with 5 diverse teams that earned 3 Judges' Awards and have 2 teams qualify to compete at the State level. We have grown to 9 teams in '24-'25 and have started our own Tournament. Check out the coverage of the tournament from the Channel 3 news. We continue to earn awards and compete at the State level.

In '25-'26, we attended 8 different competitions, earning 12 awards total over 4 of the teams. This includes 3 tournament champions which earned 3 teams the ability to compete at the VEX V5 Robotics Tennessee High School State Championship.

How does Robotics help students grow as individuals?

Students learn much more than how to build or code a robot. They are acquiring skills that are essential for any future employee: critical thinking, innovation, and collaboration. Let me walk you through some of the ways our robotics program fosters these skills.

When students are building robots, they are also:

Analyzing their end goal and adapting to those needs
Documenting their engineering design process and ideas in a professional manner to share with judges
Researching multiple aspects to improve
Debating professionally on the best plan of action

When students are coding robots, they are also:

Testing, evaluating, changing, testing, evaluating, changing… repeating
Discussing their methodology with teammates
Creating multiple versions of the code to switch to depending on their alliance’s strengths and weaknesses
Debugging code by thinking through each step and looking at the logistics

When students are driving robots, they are also:

Strategizing with alliance partners before the game begins
Making split second decisions
Evaluating the best course of action
Listening to teammate suggestions

When students are at competitions, they are also:

Explaining their ideas and process to judges during interviews
Managing time to be able to complete skills challenges and competitions
Working with diverse groups as they get a new alliance partner with each match
Networking with other teams to create the best partner dynamics for the final competition