Pleasant Valley Robotics Program
Elementary and Junior High
Interested in joining or coaching one of our FIRST LEGO League teams, CLICK HERE for more information!
Pleasant Valley Junior High Team is 2022-2023 Iowa State Champion!
Team 24775 The Interdimensional Business Pigeons from Pleasant Valley Junior High School placed first at the Iowa State FLL Competition and advanced to the FIRST World Championship in Houston, Texas! Make sure to check out this article and video from KWQC television.
2023-2024 Regional Qualifier
Congratulations to PV's robotic teams. They competed in the 2023-2024 FIRST LEGO League Regional Qualifier at the Putnam Museum and Science Center.
Robotics Royals (Cody, Forest Grove, and Hopewell), Trash Pandas (Pleasant View) and The Unicorn Society (Hopewell) qualified for the the state tournament.
The Robotics Royals also received the Robot Design award and Riverdale Height's Brobots won the innovation project award.
We also want to congratulate the PVJH Teams The Artistic Adventurers and the Coding Cobras for working hard on their projects and robots!
At the elementary and junior high levels, Pleasant Valley offers robotics with the FLL Explore and FLL Challenge programs.
FLL Explore
In Explore, teams of students in grades 2-4 focus on the fundamentals of engineering. They explore real-world problems, learn to design and code using the LEGO Education SPIKE Essential Robot Kit.
FLL Challenge
Our Elementary and Middle School teams compete in FIRST LEGO League (FLL): a Sport For The Mind. It allows young people, grades 5 through 8, to discover science and technology in a fun, creative, hands-on learning environment while building self-confidence, knowledge, and valuable career and life skills. FLL challenges kids to think like scientists and engineers. Paired with adult mentors, FLL teams solve real world problems using engineering concepts, presentation techniques, and robots.
Your student will apply math and science concepts in order to research, design, build and program autonomous robots using LEGO Spike Prime technology. They’ll work as a group to overcome obstacles and meet challenges while applying the FLL Core Values.
Each Pleasant Valley team will compete in a Regional Qualifier Tournament where they’ll present their solutions to a panel of judges as well as compete with their robot against other teams. During the Qualifier, the teams will be judged on how well they interact with each other using FLL’s Core Values, how well they’ve done on the robot challenge, robot design and how their project can really impact the world around them.
At the High School level, Pleasant Valley has teams that compete in both FIRST Tech Challenge and FIRST Robotics Competition.
FIRST Tech Challenge
It’s way more than building robots. FIRST Tech Challenge teams (up to 15 team members, grades 7-12) are challenged to design, build, program, and operate robots to compete in a head-to-head challenge in an alliance format.
Guided by adult coaches and mentors, students develop STEM skills and practice engineering principles, while realizing the value of hard work, innovation, and working as a team.
The robot kit is reusable from year to year and can be coded using a variety of levels of Java-based programming. Teams design and build robots, raise funds, design and market their team brand, and do community outreach to earn specific awards. Participants are eligible to apply for $80M+ in college scholarships.
Each season concludes with regional championship events and an exciting FIRST Championship.
FIRST Robotics Competition
Combining the excitement of sport with the rigors of science and technology. We call FIRST Robotics Competition the ultimate Sport for the Mind. High-school student participants call it “the hardest fun you’ll ever have.”
Under strict rules, limited time and resources, teams of students are challenged to raise funds, design a team "brand," hone teamwork skills, and build and program industrial-size robots to play a difficult field game against like-minded competitors. It’s as close to real-world engineering as a student can get. Volunteer professional mentors lend their time and talents to guide each team. Each season ends with an exciting FIRST Championship.