4-H Robotics

  

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The 2025 4-H LEGO ROBOTIC CHALLENGE IS LIVE!

Check out the manuals below.

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The Maryland State 4-H Robotics Challenges allow members to participate in an organized statewide robotics activity. Members in each county will form teams that will build robots to perform specific tasks. The county teams will then have the opportunity to compete at the Maryland State Fair. Each year, teams of youth can compete in one of two Robotics Challenges: the “Lego Robotics Challenge” and the “Robotics Engineering Challenge” (REC). Both divisions will have a Jr. Division (8-11), Intermediate Division (11-13), and a Senior Division (14-18). In addition, mixed-age teams will be allowed and will participate in the age division of the oldest member on the team. 

Please click on this link to access the FAQ’s List

Have questions? Looking for help troubleshooting problems with building your robots or the field components? The 4-H Robotics Committee is here to help! You can ask questions and reply even without an account on our forum. Signing up will allow you to get notified of replies and contribute to other conversations, allowing for greater collaboration on best tackling this year’s 4-H Robotics Challenges. Take a look!

State Fair Registration

There is a cost of $5 per youth to register and participate in the Maryland 4-H Robotics Contests. Registration is done via 4-H Online and is NOT done via the Maryland State Fair website. Youth can not register as individuals for the robotics contests but only as part of an established team whose club has already been charted and fully enrolled via 4-H Online, with at least 2 fully certified volunteers listed as the team’s leaders. Youth will need to choose the county their club meets in when registering, and teams will need to provide their local educator with a list of all youth participating on their team. If a club is fielding more than one team and has multiple teams competing per division (i.e., signified with A, B, C… or 1, 2, 3… or Jr, Intermediate, Sr…. etc.), then the youth lists will need to be broken down for each team when submitted to the county educator. 4-H volunteers can coach more than one team, but youth can only compete on one team at the Maryland State Fair robotics contest. For more information on registration for these events, please contact your local 4-H educator. Registration for these events closes on 4-H Online on July 31st

Maryland State 4-H Lego Challenge

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The Maryland 4-H LEGO Robotics Challenge has 4-H members build robots using parts from the LEGO Mindstorms NXT, EV3, SPIKE Prime and/or RCX kits. The challenge is run on a 4’ X 4’ table where robots start in a home base area and then travel autonomously throughout the board, completing predetermined tasks. Robots are preprogrammed and score points as they complete tasks within a 2.5-minute time frame. Each team plays in multiple rounds, with their best robot game performance counting toward their final score.

The Maryland 4-H LEGO Robotics Challenge will also require the team to prepare a technical presentation for a panel of judges. In addition, the teams will demonstrate how their robot and attachments work, share their engineering notebook, and explain how they worked together throughout the season.

The community service project is a third component of the Maryland 4-H LEGO Robotics Challenge. Each season will present a new theme for the LEGO field and this project, where teams will be asked to develop a service project that relates to such. The team will then prepare a visual presentation for a panel of judges explaining their service project and its impact on their communities.

Each team's final score will be a combination of their best robot round, technical presentation score, and service project score.

Maryland 4-H Lego Robotics Challenge Documents: 

4-H Robotics Engineering Challenge

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The Maryland 4-H Robotics Engineering Challenge (REC) will have 4-H members building larger, more complex robots up to 18” X 18” X 18” which will compete on a 12’ X 12’ playing field built from carpentry supplies. The robot can be constructed from a variety of robotic platforms, including, but not limited to, VEX, Tetrix, or LEGOs. The theme of the challenge will change every year and will integrate STEM topics relevant to careers and current priorities in the industrial & technological worlds. Each game lasts 2.5 minutes, with the first 30 seconds being when the robots will perform missions autonomously using code preprogrammed by the team. The final 2 minutes of each game will be driver-controlled (teleoperation) through wireless controllers. The team with the most points after the full 2.5 minutes wins the match.

REC Teams will also present their engineering notebook, which they started and maintained throughout the season, and be interviewed by a panel of judges in the technical round. Teams can also craft a custom presentation for the technical round if desired. Judges will ask questions and score the team based on information they shared during this round, including the robot’s construction, it's programming, the group’s overall teamwork, and their community service activities. 

2024 Maryland 4-H Robotics Engineering Challenge Documents: 

Updates to the 2024 REC manual are highlighted in the following updated document in yellow.