Resources to Help Teach with VEX V5 and VEX EXP This School Year
By Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy
Supporting students and educators in a changing competition landscape
If you teach with VEX V5 or VEX EXP, you may be entering this school year with more questions than usual. Beginning with the 2026–2027 season, VEX Robotics and the Robotics Education & Competition Foundation (RECF) are operating separate competition programs after nearly two decades of partnership.
For teachers, coaches, students, and families who helped build the VEX community, this change may feel uncertain. You may be comparing new registration systems, game rules, event schedules, costs, or championship pathways while also trying to prepare your classroom and support your students. It is reasonable to take time, ask questions, and determine which opportunities best fit your local community.
The good news is that the most important learning goals remain valuable across competition programs. Students still need to design, build, program, test, document, communicate, troubleshoot, and improve their ideas. Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy’s VEX V5 and VEX EXP resources focus on these durable skills, so educators can use them in the classroom and with robotics teams regardless of the competition pathway they choose.
Understanding the 2026–2027 V5 competition options
Schools using VEX V5 hardware now have two distinct competition pathways to consider:
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RECF Achieve Robotics Competition: RECF now administers its independent program through . Its 2026–2027 game, , challenges robots to collect and stack Pins and Cups on Goals, turn Rollers, and score through specific object orientations. The program includes solo driving, solo coding, and alliance matches, with advancement toward the RECF STEM World Championship. RECF Achieve requires VEX V5 electronics and permits structures built from VEX V5, AndyMark Robits, and Pitsco TETRIX MAX components, along with certain custom parts described in its rules.
- VEX V5 Robotics Competition: VEX Robotics administers the official VEX competition pathway through . For 2026–2027, the V5 game is . Two alliances of two teams compete to stack Pins and Cups on Goals, set Toggles to their alliance color, and finish with robots in the contested Midfield. Events registered through the VEX system provide the qualifying path to the 2027 VEX Robotics World Championship.
These programs have separate registrations, rulebooks, events, and championship destinations. Availability may also differ by region. Before committing, educators may want to compare the events available nearby, the experience their students want, the equipment and game materials they already own, program costs, and the pathway that best fits their school’s goals.
VEX EXP remains an excellent classroom platform for learning programming and robotics. Because competition hardware rules are specific, however, educators cannot use an EXP robot for either V5 competition pathway. The programming, computational thinking, sensing, testing, and troubleshooting skills students develop with EXP transfer strongly to V5, even when the competition robot itself must use different electronics or components.
Some schools may also explore programs such as or . These organizations use their own annual rules, membership structures, and advancement systems. Hardware requirements can vary by event and season, so confirm current national and state-level rules before planning around existing V5 or EXP equipment.
Explore VEX V5 and VEX EXP curriculum and resources
Our curriculum helps educators teach programming, computational thinking, mechanical design, sensing, decision-making, testing, and problem-solving through hands-on robotics activities.
Coding and Computational Thinking with VEX V5 provides a structured sequence of project-based activities using VEXcode. Students progress from basic robot movement to sensor-based behaviors, loops, decisions, and more advanced control. Educators using EXP can apply the same core programming concepts with platform-specific setup guidance.
CMRA also offers Software Foundations with VEX V5 and , supporting learning in software engineering, structural design, drivetrains, speed and torque, mechanisms, and iterative problem-solving.
These resources can be used in classrooms, clubs, after-school programs, and robotics teams. They are designed to build the foundational capabilities students need before they encounter the added constraints and strategic demands of any competition game.
Build your confidence with VEX V5 and VEX EXP professional development
Our professional development gives educators hands-on experience building, programming, and troubleshooting VEX V5 and VEX EXP robots. Participants learn core robotics and computational thinking concepts while also practicing strategies for diagnosing common problems and supporting productive student teamwork.
Educators explore how to help students work through challenges, test their ideas, learn from unexpected results, and develop solutions more independently. Current training also includes work with the VEX AI Vision Sensor, introducing concepts such as object classification and AprilTag-based localization.
These skills are useful whether you teach robotics as a course, advise a club, coach a VEX V5 Robotics Competition team, support an RECF Achieve team, or prepare students for another engineering challenge.
Practice programming with a virtual robot
VICE, short for Virtual-Integrated Curriculum Environment, is CMRA’s platform-agnostic virtual robot. It gives students another way to practice movement, sensing, loops, decision-making, testing, and troubleshooting with or without access to physical robotics hardware.
Because VICE focuses on transferable programming and computational thinking concepts, it can help educators provide consistent practice when hardware is shared, competition robots are being rebuilt, or students need additional time to develop and test an idea.
Focus on the learning that lasts
Competition can give students a powerful reason to apply what they are learning, collaborate under pressure, and improve a design over time. The specific game or organization may shape the season, but it does not change the value of the underlying skills.
Whether your school chooses the VEX V5 Robotics Competition, RECF Achieve, another program, classroom-based challenges, or no formal competition at all, Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy is here to help you prepare. Explore our VEX V5 and VEX EXP curriculum, professional development, and virtual robotics resources to build a program that gives students meaningful opportunities to think, create, test, and grow.
Competition information is current as of August 6, 2026. Competition manuals and event policies are updated throughout the season; always consult the latest official rules before registering a team or finalizing a robot design.