VEX Space Cookie Team is a diverse group of girls bursting with curiosity and creativity, intrigued by robotics.
2023-2024 is the twelfth year of the Space Cookies VEX team. The Space Cookies team, a collaboration between Girl Scouts and NASA, started in 2006 with the creation of the FRC team, a high school-level group. The VEX team was added in 2012 as a way to give opportunities to more girls, including those in middle school.
Every year, with the guidance of our mentors and the generous support of our sponsors, we are given the chance to build four robots that compete in numerous local competitions. There, we meet and play matches with similarly inspired teams from all around California.
With each experience, girls gain the confidence and knowledge to go further and build more complex parts for their robots. During each season our robots evolve while girls acquire a deeper understanding of complex structural, mechanical, and programming concepts to meet the increasing challenges of the season.
We currently consist of 4 subteams: 1868A, 1868N, 1868X, and 1868Z.
Over the past 8 years, we have won the following awards:
- 3 Design Award
- 1 Tournament Champions
- 1 Sportsmanship Award
- 1 Inspire Award
- 6 Judges Award
- 1 Middle School Excellence Award
- 1 Build Award
Team Meetings
Our team meets twice a week year-round at NASA Ames Research Center in Moffett Field, CA. We typically meet on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 5-7:30pm. During the intense build season in the summer, we meet four times a week to get ready for the competition season. After the intense build season, our competition season is from October to April.
VEX Robotics releases a new challenge/game every year in April. Gearing up for the build season our team members learn the basics of robotics, including VEX parts and tools, robot programming (VEX Coding Studio & vexCode), and problem-solving skills through girl-led workshops. Veteran team members lead girls in brainstorming ideas about possible robot designs as well as prototyping parts, following the engineering design process.
During the build season, our adult mentors guide and develop a better understanding of the structural, mechanical, and programming problems we may come across and help us try multiple solutions. Once the robot is assembled the teams test the robot multiple times to minimize unexpected errors during the competition. Simultaneously, the girls strategize and brainstorm for the autonomous and driver control period during the matches.