HOLLYWOOD, Fla. – Some South Florida elementary school students are getting ready for a big competition. They are participating in the first Lego League open championship at Legoland in California.
Ten very bright fourth and fifth graders from Sheridan Park Elementary School will be participating in the competition.
They will face 80 teams from around the world, trying to complete a robot obstacle course with a robot they made and programmed out of Legos.
"The boys and girls have to tell a robot what to do as they complete an obstacle course. So, it is a lot of math and science, understanding rotations, degrees, time estimation, friction (and) speed," Lego robot coach Victor Yuen said.
The course has to be completed in 2 1/2 minutes, and any mistakes will cost the team points.
"It is a lot of pressure, because it is, kind of like, we set up for the next one. If we don’t get it out of the way, it can mess up the other team," one student, Zeven Kermis, said.
The students have spent weeks after school programming the robot to do all the tasks.
"During the coding, they tell the robot to move forward, back, left or right, lift an arm, drop something off or push something," Yuen said.
The students won the South Florida regional championship, beating out 45 other teams. After weeks of trial and error, they are ready for the championship.
"I like it because I get to work with my friends and get to do something we really like, like programming robots and making them go through the obstacles," Mia Florian said.
Even though the competition will be stiff, all 10 children think they can win.
"We are all a team and we always help each other, and with the help of each other, we can finish the whole obstacle on time,” Florian said.