REC Foundation
Student-Centered Policy
REC Foundation Student-Centered Policy 9/5/2019
Student-Centered
The Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation’s mission is to increase student interest and
involvement in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) by engaging students in hands-on,
affordable, and sustainable robotics engineering programs. We believe that the student-centered model of
learning is aligned with our mission and provides effective educational benefits to students. The REC
Foundation student-centered policy should be frequently reviewed by organizations participating in REC
Foundation events.
There are a variety of definitions for the term “student-centered” in the educational community, and the REC
Foundation would like to communicate a definition for student-centered that will apply for teams that participate
in the VIQC, VRC, and VEX U competitions to increase the transparency of the expectations and increase the
student learning opportunities. The term student-centered is encompassed in both the learning and application
settings for REC Foundation events and activities:
Student-Centered Learning: Students are actively involved in learning opportunities to increase their
knowledge and skills in the engineering design process, mechanical design, programming, and
teamwork under the guidance of adult mentorship.
Student-Centered Application: Students have ownership on how their robot is designed, built,
programmed, and utilized in match play with other teams and Robot Skills matches.
The REC Foundation acknowledges that students participating in official REC Foundation events come from a
spectrum of educational backgrounds, and ultimately it is the responsibility of the adult to determine the
appropriate amount of support for the individual student. Due to the competitive nature of these programs,
teams may be tempted to prioritize winning over learning. We encourage adults to ask the following questions
in each of your learning experiences with students to help gauge the appropriate amount of support for your
students:
• Am I teaching or telling?
• Am I encouraging students to express their voice before sharing my thoughts?
• Are the students asking for my assistance or are they able to be independent?
• Are students able to use the knowledge or skills that I’m sharing independently in the future?
Ultimately, the students learn the most when they are given opportunities to test their own ideas, fail, learn
from those failures, and try again. Often in stressful or competitive situations, it may be easier or faster for an
adult to solve the problem or fix a robot, but by doing so, the adult is missing a learning opportunity for a
student. Instead, we encourage adults to provide guidance when needed to help educate student on the
thinking behind problem solving rather than solving the problem. Adults can be a valuable resource to help
students learn the skills they will need to work in a team and design robots. In the examples provided below,
the role of the adult is primarily a facilitator for learning so that the student may apply the knowledge to their
own robot, engineering notebook, game strategy and communication with other teams.

Please read the rest of the document here before signing:
https://www.roboticseducation.org/documents/2019/08/student-centered-policy-rec-foundation.pdf/