"You almost can't do anything any more that does not (involve) S.T.E.A.M.," says Robotics Education and Competition Foundation Community Innovations Manager Nancy McIntyre.

Nancy, who will be giving two presentations at this week's California STEAM Symposium, in Long Beach, CA, is a former teacher and robotics coach.

And she's discussing teaching students skills for today's job market, through hands-on experience.

That experience? Designing and constructing competition robots, as participants in nonprofit REC Foundation's family of VEX Robotics programs.

From elementary school through college level, REC Foundation offers VEX Robotics curricula. Student teams collaborate on creating their robots, then entering them in a competition. In a game setting, the students' robots complete tasks, with the winners of each round going on to the next level.

Far-reaching inspiration

More than a million students, in 70 countries, participate in the program, according to REC Foundation's website. And annually, the top 3,000 teams--from all over the world--come together for the world's largest robotics competition, which will be happening this April in Dallas.

While the students are having fun, though, they're also learning skills they couldn't get in a classroom. These include team collaboration, problem-solving and effective communication.

REC Foundation has even published a "Chicken Soup for the Soul" book, subtitled, "Inspiring Students, One Robot at a Time," in which they share the stories of a number of students, as well as educators, who have seen the VEX program change lives.

Nancy explained some of the ways the program is guiding students towards future careers, shared a preview of the two sessions she'll be hosting at California STEAM Symposium and offered a preview of the upcoming VEX Robotics World Championship.