St Mary’s NS Mountbellew, Scoil Muire Gan Smal NS Claremorris and St Vincent’s NS Coolarne are off to represent the Galway-Mayo region in the national VEX final after winning awards for excellence and teamwork at the Regional VEX IQ 2023 Competition hosted by ATU Galway last weekend.

Sponsored by Trane Technologies – Thermo King, the VEX IQ Teamwork Challenge comprises of a series of matches where participating schools team compete with their robots working collaboratively to score points. The event saw over 400 primary school pupils ranging in age from 7 to 12 years, from 24 national schools, competing for a place in the national final. 

Other awards presented included the Design award won by Carnmore NS and Judges award won by Glencastle NS. The competition also includes awards for driving and coding skills won by St Mary’s NS Mountbellew as well as best Robot design won by Carnmore NS.

Dr Carine Gachon, VEX coordinator for ATU Galway-Mayo, says: “Each year, the challenge is different which requires creativity and problem-solving to overcome the difficulties of the game. This year we saw some amazing designs and were impressed with the pupils’ ability to troubleshoot their robot during the competition.”

Colin Murray, teacher of the 6th Class in St Mary’s NS Mountbellew, the overall winners of the event, says: “The Vex IQ competition is a fantastic opportunity for children to learn and experience all aspects of Stem education. It both challenges and engages all the children and makes learning coding, designing and testing fun and educational. This is one of the best initiatives our school ever took part in.”