The competition robotics season struggled to continue on this year with so many schools and districts unable to provide opportunities for students to build robots safely. Constraints related to sharing equipment and social distancing were necessary to keep our students safe this year and many students worked completely from home as distance learners. However, TUSD Robotics shifted to the new learning environment and we had a remarkably successful virtual robotics season.

Although many of our TUSD Robotics teams did not compete officially with the REC (Robotics Education and Competition) Foundation, we created our own competition season in the Tustin Unified School District consisting of three phases.

Phase 1- The focus was diving deep into the engineering design process and notebook documentation while designing robots to play the official game of the season as well as learning to code virtual robots using VEXcode VR.

Phase 2- The focus was learning and building virtual robots using the CAD software OnShape.

Phase 3- Officially registered REC teams competed in live remote tournaments from their school site against others in the state of California. Only Beckman High School, Foothill High School, and Orchard Hills Middle School robotics teams were officially registered this year and found a way around the constraints through methods such as sending robot parts home and built physical robots safely. All 7 of the Beckman High School Robopatties teams qualified for the CA State Championship and competed in a live remote tournament.

TUSD Robotics hosted a variety of online challenges for both Phase 1 and Phase 2 with almost 150 entries submitted into the virtual competition by teams and individuals. The award winners are highlighted below.

Congratulations to all of the TUSD Robotics participants for continuing your learning journey in engineering and coding. We are so proud of your perseverance and impressed by your dedication to the world of robotics.

Although not all coaches decided to participate this year, the following teachers went above and beyond and coached through both Phase 1 and Phase 2 running August through the end of March. Not only were they re-designing their classroom lessons to accommodate both in-person and distance learners, but they dedicated time after school to keep their robotics programs moving forward. Thank you so much for your dedication and we are extremely impressed by your perseverance!

In the midst of a pandemic, TUSD Robotics continued to grow our funds of knowledge, grew in size, created more learning resources via the TUSD Robotics YouTube Channel, and continued to serve our amazing students. Below are some of our accomplishments during this unprecedented school year.