Middle and high school students from Northern and Central California will descend upon Modesto Junior College (Mary Stuart Hall, 2200 Blue Gum, Modesto) on Saturday for the 3rd Annual VEX Toss Up Robotics Competition.   Seventy teams will come together for a non-stop, action packed day of competition where they will battle against each other with robots created from the VEX Robotics Design System.  Co-sponsored by the Stanislaus County Office of Education and Modesto Junior College, the tournament will be held from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. and is free and open to the public.

Participants will compete for the championship title by strategically executing the game Toss Up, driving robots they designed, built and programmed from the ground up. By competing in a VEX tournament students have an opportunity to celebrate their accomplishments with peers, competitors, family and friends, while allowing them to experience the thrill of building their own competition robot.  This Competition serves as a vehicle for students to develop critical life skills such as teamwork, leadership and project management, honed through building robots and competing with like-minded students from the community in a pulse-pounding, exciting, non-traditional environment. 

The competition season culminates each spring with the top performing teams from local and state VEX Robotics Competitions competing against each other at the World Championship at the Anaheim Convention Center. Participating local schools include: Central Valley High School, Ceres High School, and Valley Charter High School.