SAN ANTONIO – Walzem Elementary teacher Sarah Marquez started the afterschool robotics team as a way to help challenge some of the smartest kids on campus.
The Robo Colts team meets once a week from August to January to design and build a moving robot.
“The kids have to write all of those steps and the coding instructions, and then they have to do a digital notebook as well, which is a log of everything we’ve done throughout the year,” Marquez said.
It takes patience, teamwork, and critical problem-solving thinking to build a robot ready for competition.
Fifth grader Corina Long remembers how stressful it was when they showed up to the VEX International competition only to face problems.
“The day before the competition, the robot was not working correctly,” she said. “So we had to get there at 7:30 and try to fix it. And we had to take it to get qualified. And we got qualified, but we still had to fix it after that.”
Marquez said the robot’s competition and design are built for junior high school students, but they show just how advanced her fourth and fifth graders' thinking skills are.
“We barely did not make finals, but we were given the judges award out of the entire competition,” Marquez said. “And it is the second year in a row that Walzem Elementary School’s brought that home.”
North East ISD is celebrating the Jackson Middle School Robotics team, which won the state championship tournament. They are headed to the VEXIQ World Championship in May.
