Our 2021 Season at a Glance
RECAP 2020
There is no doubt that this past year has completely changed the way we live our lives and interact with each other. Overnight, we had to change our normal routines and adjust to having social interactions behind a screen. Unfortunately, this included students and teachers who need personal interaction to have a valuable quality education. We know that low-income, and historically underrepresented students are significantly impacted by the pandemic. Many communities lack essential resources needed to succeed such as books, laptops, and internet connection. Although this year has thrown a lot of us and has dampened our spirits, PiE’s spirit has remained strong and we are determined to fulfill its mission, especially now.
PiE has always believed that no student should be denied a quality STEM education experience. For over a decade, PiE has provided students with a hands-on robotics competition and this year is no exception. This year, PiE’s leadership team and staff have worked hard to bring its students a safe and hands-on Fall Competition, and we are now focusing all of our efforts to bring students an even better hands-on robotics experience in the spring.
2020 FALL COMPETITION
Excitement and creativity filled the Zoom room when many students were showing off their Rube Goldberg machines.
We wanted to keep PiE’s momentum going with our high schools and create an engaging Fall Competition. Our theme for the fall was Rube Goldberg.
Students each design a three-action Rube Goldberg machine as a part of a bigger Rube Goldberg machine. Where one student ends, another picks up and continues the machine. Each team will string together these short videos to create a large video of the final machine without having to meet up in person!
Our full fall robotics competition can be found here https://youtu.be/kL7PJh48HVI
2021 SPRING COMPETITION
PiE is committed to making its flagship spring robotics competition fun, interactive, and engaging for its students even during this pandemic. PiE staff are working around the clock to provide students with a virtual and hands-on experience in order to make the competition safe, and interactive. We can relate to the stresses of online learning and how uninspiring and dull it can be, and wanted to work harder in providing a robotics competition to our students that is fun and engaging.
The spring competition will consist of a robotics field built by staff at the UC Berkeley campus. Students will be tasked with designing their robots within their teams from the comfort of their homes. PiE staff will work to make their ideas come to life and on competition day, students will control their robots on the field right from their homes.
We are excited to host 17 high schools this year and provide them this opportunity even while practicing social distancing. We can’t wait for March to roll around and see how our students grow!
