More than 150 VEX V5 Robotics Competition students and mentors from around Kentucky will unite at the Owensboro Innovation Campus Saturday, December 13, 2025, for the Jingle Bot Rock VEX V5 Robotics Competition Push Back tournament, presented by the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation.
The action-packed event will feature more than 40 teams who will collaborate with other schools in a series of back-to-back robot challenges, made possible by the following sponsors: Southern Star Central Gas Pipeline, Owensboro Health, Domtar, Unifirst, Gateway Urgent Care, Ell-Bee Towing, and The Skin Lab. Participants strive to succeed by strategically executing the game VEX V5 Robotics Competition Push Back, with robots they designed, built, and programmed using VEX V5.
Student participants are from middle and high schools all across Kentucky. Locally, Owensboro Innovation Academy will field eight teams, i-Middle will have two teams, Apollo High School will field five teams, and Daviess County High School one team. The robotics competition is free to spectators and is a great opportunity for parents to bring their young children to experience STEM in action. Qualifying matches begin at 9:30 am and will conclude around 2 pm, with elimination matches immediately following. Spectators may come and go freely.
VEX V5 Robotics Competition Push Back is one in a series of events taking place throughout the year. VEX Competitions represent the world’s largest and fastest-growing competitive robotics programs for elementary schools, middle schools, high schools, and colleges. There are more than 55,000 VEX teams from 125 countries that participate in more than 3,613 events worldwide. The competition season culminates each spring with the VEX Robotics World Championship, a highly anticipated event that unites top qualifying teams from local, state, regional, and international VEX V5 Robotics Competition events who strive to secure the title of World Champions.
“Watching students experience the joy of bringing a robot from simple design renderings to the competition field is quite an amazing feat,” said Stephanie Gray, VEX Robotics Coach and Engineering Facilitator of Owensboro Innovation Academy. “To do so in such a short period, with the ability to meet up at a VEX V5 Robotics Competition event to compete with your peers and learn from each other is truly inspiring. This event will prepare students with the skills they need to become tomorrow’s leading innovators.”
The VEX V5 Robotics Competition serves as a vehicle for students to develop critical life skills, such as teamwork, ingenuity, and project management. These skills are honed through building robots and collaborating with like-minded students from the community.
More information about the VEX V5 Robotics Competition is available at recf.org.
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About the Robotics Education & Competition (REC) Foundation
The Robotics Education & Competition 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.