GEAR - Get Excited About Robotics

GEAR provides an exciting hands-on LEGO robotics challenge to elementary and middle school students at no participation fee, with the goal of increasing interest in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) disciplines while offering mentoring opportunities to engineering undergraduate students at Texas Tech University in an effort to improve their education and increase retention rates.

The TTU GEAR tournament is held annually in during the spring semester. It is open to students in grades K-8 from all schools / after school clubs that are sponsored by a teacher or coach. Sign-up of individual students is not possible. The competition challenge changes annually, but a set of general rules remains the same every year.

The tournament offers a large degree of flexibility in how and to what extent schools / after school clubs want to participate in the competition. In the past, some schools offered LEGO robotics as an after-school activity, while others incorporated the activity into their math, science, technology, or gifted and talented GT classes. Teams meet between once a week after school to five days a week in class. Each participating team must have a LEGO Spike Prime, EV3 or NXT robotics kit and access to a computer/laptop in order to program their robot.

During the 6 - 8 week long GEAR challenge elementary and middle student teams design, construct, and program robots using the LEGO SPIKE Prime kits or the older LEGO MINDSTORMS EV3/NXT kits, which contain structural elements, wheels, axles, gears, motors, sensors, and a simple microprocessor with a rechargeable battery. Programming of the robot is accomplished through an intuitive graphical user interface patterned after the widely-popular Scratch software. Communication between the robot's microprocessor and the computer is done through Bluetooth or a computer's USB port. 

The annually changing challenge is designed around a fictive story that motivates the need for autonomous robots (i.e. a robot operating in Antarctica, constructing a moon post, or performing surgery). To solve the challenge, students learn engineering skills through a teaming exercise in designing, building, programming, testing, and troubleshooting their wheeled LEGO robots. These robots then compete autonomously in two-minute matches on a 4-by-4-foot game field.

 

We offering in-person and remote competition events to cater to both, teams who want to participate in an exciting competition event held on a Saturday together with many other teams and teams who do not want to travel or have conflicts during the competition weekends.  A school/robotics program may participate in both formats but a single student may only compete in one of the competitions (in-person or remote).  Schools/robotics programs may participate with a maximum of 8 teams per age group (elementary school division: K-5th grade, middle school division: 6th-8th grade). A team consists of at least 3 students. While there is no upper limit in team members, a team size of 3-5 students is recommended.

We offer five different leagues (Amarillo, Frenship, Lubbock, Midland, remote) with dates shown under tournament events.  The best teams from all leagues, including the remote teams with be invited to the GEAR championship in Lubbock. Teams will receive their game mats and game elements during the kickoff event. 

Remote teams should make arrangements to pick up their game mats and elements from Texas Tech University campus or purchase their own. 

We will keep two components from last year’s remote competition:

• The highest score from trial run (video submission or event participation) will count towards the total score recorded at game day
• Teams who wish to compete for the Young Engineeer’s Award will need to submit an Engineering Design Process video 1 week prior to game day (it’s score will only count toward the Young Engineer Award). There will no longer be an essay component.

The dates for the different leagues are as follows:

Amarillo league: (should this league sell out, Amarillo ISD teams will receive preferential treatment)

Kickoff:            Saturday, January 23, 2027 at Sam Houston Middle School  

Trial Run:        Saturday, February 20, 2027 at Sam Houston Middle School

Game Day:      Saturday, April 3, 2027 at Sam Houston Middle School

 

Frenship league: (should this league sell out, Frenship ISD teams will receive preferential treatment)

Kickoff:            Saturday, January 23, 2027, at the Frenship Middle School cafeteria

Trial Run:        Saturday, February 27, 2027, at the Frenship Middle School cafeteria

Game Day:      Saturday, April 10, 2027, at the Frenship Middle School cafeteria

 

Lubbock league: (should this league sell out, Lubbock ISD teams will receive preferential treatment)

Kickoff:            Saturday, January 30, 2027, TTU (TBD)

Trial Run:         Saturday, March 6, 2027, at Lubbock High School

Game Day:      Saturday, April 17, 2027, at Lubbock High School

 

Midland league: (should this league sell out, Midland ISD and Permian Bassin teams will receive preferential treatment)

Kickoff:            Saturday, January 23, 2027, at Carver Center Elementary School

Trial Run:        Saturday, February 27, 2027, at Carver Center Elementary School

Game Day:       Saturday, April 17, 2027, at Carver Center Elementary School

 

Remote League:

Kickoff:           Wednesday, January 20, 2027, on Zoom

Trial Run:       Submit video of best robot game performance by Friday February 26, 2027

Game Week:      Schedule Game Day during the time frame of April 2 to 8 , 2027

 

The best teams from all leagues will be invited to participate in playoffs. More information on how to qualify for playoffs will be provided during the kickoff event.

 

Championship:     Saturday, April 24, 2027, location TBD

Registration opens annually in November and closes December 20th. You will be able to register here, during that time.