A robotics competition like no other.

Take plywood and a box filled with items such as PVC pipe, screws and other hardware, an irrigation valve cover, piano wire, aluminum paint grid, a bicycle inner tube, a BRAIN (BEST Robotics Advanced Instruction Node programmable platform), and something called a micro-energy chain system and try, within eight weeks, to design and build a functioning machine that can perform certain, specific tasks in three minutes. What do you get?

You get BEST Robotics, a middle and high school robotics competition whose mission is to engage and excite students about engineering, science, and technology as well as inspire them to pursue careers in these fields. Each fall, over 850 middle and high schools and over 18,000 students participate in the competition across the country.

Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education programs, like BEST, help to enhance the nation’s global competitiveness. Yet, there is a shortage of qualified people to fuel the growing high-tech workforce. The BEST Robotics competition is a hands-on co-curricular program designed to make engineering more inviting to students. The BEST mission is to engage and excite students in engineering, science, and technology as well as inspire them to pursue careers in these fields by bridging classroom knowledge with real-world experience. Through participation in our project-based STEM program, students learn to analyze and solve problems utilizing the engineering design process, develop technological literacy skills, enhance communication skills, and learn to effectively work in a team setting. It is these skills that industry seeks in its workforce.