LONG BEACH, Miss. (WLOX) \u2014 Students at Coast Episcopal School are preparing to take their robotics skills to a national stage.<\/p>\n
Inside Seamann Makerspace at Coast Episcopal School, sixth grader Isabella Wood types lines of code that tell a robot what to do, step by step.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter about, like, the scores and stuff. It matters about how we\u2019re treating each other,\u201d Wood said.<\/p>\n
Wood and her teammates, Hutson Lambert, Augustine Martinez, and Porter Bates, make up the Coast Episcopal Robo Raiders. The robotics team is headed to the Western Edge FIRST Robotics Invitational in California, competing against about 90 teams from around the world.<\/p>\n
Building and coding missions<\/p>\n
The students build, code, and test every robot mission.<\/p>\n
\u201cOur mission strategy is to do the easiest and quickest missions with the most points,\u201d Martinez said.<\/p>\n
The team has 260 points coded out of 300 needed to make the robot run its missions.<\/p>\n
The Robo Raiders say the biggest lesson isn\u2019t engineering; it\u2019s teamwork under pressure. They\u2019ve already overcome equipment failure in the state competition.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou cannot be stressed or angry because core values are a big part of robotics. You just have to work together to solve the problem,\u201d Lambert said.<\/p>\n
Innovation project<\/p>\n
The team also created a board game for their innovation project based on this year\u2019s theme, archaeology, called \u201cRelic Rush.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe board has four different sections. The ocean, the ice biome, the forest, and the desert. And basically, you use coordinate cards to try to find artifacts. At the end of the game, whoever has the most artifacts wins,\u201d Lambert said.<\/p>\n
Coach Tarah Herbert says what stands out most isn\u2019t the robot or board game but how the students handle challenges.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve seen them grow in so many ways\u2026 from public speaking to just the way they handle situations. It\u2019s really amazing to see them grow as people and not just winning,\u201d Herbert said.<\/p>\n
The Robo Raiders travel to the competition in California in May.<\/p>\n