Team History
The Kualapuu School Robotics Team was founded in 2014 and has competed in every competition season since.
The Kualapuu School Robotics Team was founded in 2014 and has competed in every competition season since.
Coach/Instructor Edwin Mendija founded Kualapuu Elementary School’s VEX IQ Robotics in 2014. Team 1037 consists of students grades 5-6 who meet during recesses daily and after school twice a week for an hour each day to design, build, program and practice driving their robots.
For the 2014-2015 season (VEX IQ Highrise), Team 1037 competed in the very first Molokai STEM Day VEX IQ Competition hosted by Molokai Middle School and won the teams very first award.
In the 2015-2016 season (VEX IQ Bank Shot), Team 1037 won Programming Skills at Molokai’s VEX IQ League Tournament, qualifying for the Hawaii VEX IQ Championship in 2016. Team 1037B won the Energy Award and qualified for States through skills as well. The State Championship for the 2015-2016 seasons took place on February 6, 2016. Team 1037B placed 15th and Team 1037A placed 23rd out of 40 of the best teams in the state!
In the 2016-2017 season (VEX IQ Crossover), Team 1037A won Molokai VEX IQ League Champions and 1037B placed second in Programming skills qualifying both teams for the Hawaii VEX IQ Championship. The state Championship took place on February 20, 2017 at the Hawaii Convention Center, Oahu consisting of about 50 Elementary School Teams. Team 1037B finished qualification rounds as the top team moving on to the finals round and placed 2nd in the state - they had become the first ever Molokai Elementary School robotics team to qualify for a World Championship! Team 1037A placed 3rd in the state for the Skills Challenge which also qualified them for Worlds!
At the 2017 VEX IQ World Championship, Kualapu'u School's two robotics teams put on a performance of a lifetime. Team 1037A again had a strong showing in the Skills category, placing 40th place out of 250 of the top teams in the World. Team 1037B exceeded expectations and won the Engineering Division World Championship with their partners the Discobots from Canada, which qualified them for the World Finals. In the finals, 1037B and their partners took 2nd place in the world with a score of 94 points! This is the highest any elementary school team from Hawaii has placed in the VEX IQ World Championship
At the 2017 VEX IQ World Championship, Kualapu'u School's two robotics teams put on a performance of a lifetime. Team 1037A again had a strong showing in the Skills category, placing 40th place out of 250 of the top teams in the World. Team 1037B exceeded expectations and won the Engineering Division World Championship with their partners the Discobots from Canada, which qualified them for the World Finals. In the finals, 1037B and their partners took 2nd place in the world with a score of 94 points! This is the highest any elementary school team from Hawaii has placed in the VEX IQ World Championship
For the 2017-2018 season (VEX IQ Ringmaster), Kualapuu started the season strong with Teams 1037 A, B, and C dominating the Molokai VEX IQ League, with Teams B and C eventually taking the Tournament Championship! Team B also took the Robot Skills Championship (their score held top 35 in the World throughout the rest of the season and was also the 2nd highest score in Hawaii).
All three teams competed at the 2018 Hawaii VEX IQ State Championship on January 14, 2018, where once again Kualapuu Robotics qualified for Worlds! Team 1037C won the State Championship while Team 1037B took 4th at states and also brought home the "Think Award"! Team 1037A also qualified for Worlds via their Robot Skills score.
Kualapuu again competed at the VEX IQ World Championship which took place at Louisville, Kentucky and this time featured 400 teams from multiple countries! All three teams performed strongly in their divisions, where both Team 1037A and 1037B took 5th in their divisions and 1037C brought home the 3rd place trophy!
All three teams competed at the 2018 Hawaii VEX IQ State Championship on January 14, 2018, where once again Kualapuu Robotics qualified for Worlds! Team 1037C won the State Championship while Team 1037B took 4th at states and also brought home the "Think Award"! Team 1037A also qualified for Worlds via their Robot Skills score.
Kualapuu again competed at the VEX IQ World Championship which took place at Louisville, Kentucky and this time featured 400 teams from multiple countries! All three teams performed strongly in their divisions, where both Team 1037A and 1037B took 5th in their divisions and 1037C brought home the 3rd place trophy!
Kualapuu got off to a running start for the 2018-2019 season (VEX IQ Next Level). Three of the outgoing 6th graders competed in one final tournament - the 2018 St. Louis International Invitational. The students dealt with some adversity at first but eventually clawed their way up to be the second seed and ended up winning the Tournament Championship as well as taking 2nd place in the Robot Skills Challenge! This also marked the first time that Kualapuu School Team 1037 was able to compete alongside Molokai High School Team 1037 at a tournament. It was an awesome send off for the students!
With a whole new group of students, Kualapuu School ended up qualifying all 3 of its teams to the 2019 Hawaii State Championship, where Team 1037C took 2nd in the Tournament and qualified for the 2019 World Championship - Kualapuu's third year in a row!
With a whole new group of students, Kualapuu School ended up qualifying all 3 of its teams to the 2019 Hawaii State Championship, where Team 1037C took 2nd in the Tournament and qualified for the 2019 World Championship - Kualapuu's third year in a row!