BY KAREN BOSSICK

They don’t wear helmets or shoulder pads. And there are no balls or strikes.

But VEX Robotics Competitions are increasingly becoming where it’s at when it comes to school competition.

And the Community Campus will become Ground Zero for the season-opening tournament of Idaho’s VEX Robotics Competition on Friday, Oct. 27.

More than 30 teams fielding 100 participants from across southern Idaho will take part in the competition from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. The event is free and open to the public.

This year’s VEX Robotics Competition is “In the Zone.” It’s played on a 12-by-12-foot square field where teams have just two minutes to best the opposition by stacking 80 cones on 10 goals, parking their 18-by-18-inch robots and other skills.

The VEX Robotics Competition, sponsored by the Robotics Education Competition Foundation, is the largest and fastest-growing youth robotics program in the world. Every year it provides a fresh challenge and students are tasked with designing and building robots to address that challenge.

Last year’s competition, for instance, required robots to throw stars over a two-foot fence.

“These competitions are fun, fast-paced and fierce,” said Kevin Lupton, Wood River High School robotics coach and engineering teacher.

The Blaine County School District’s robotics program, known as BC Bots, was the first of its kind in the state of Idaho. Today it involves 25 students at Wood River High School and 37 at Wood River Middle School. It also includes students in robotics program at each of the local elementary schools.

Students not only learn engineering concepts but they learn teamwork, perseverance, communication skills and collaboration skills, project management and critical thinking.

And, in the past, both Wood River High and Wood River Middle School teams have been among the top ranked teams in the nation, allowing them to compete against teams from all over the world at world competitions.