BALTIMORE — It looks like play time, but these students are working with robots they created, from the coding.
"The blue slide represents the movement of the driving training and all the motors," said one student.
Now, to the construction.
"I just built this roller and we're going to move this forward so it can go know down that yellow tower," said one student.
They range from third to eighth grade from Cross Country Elementary Middle School and they're gearing up for two Robotics competitions.
The RoboEagles will attend a National Robotics competition in Iowa and for the first time at a Worlds competition in Dallas.
"I'm really excited, yes I'm very nervous," said another student.
8-year-old Blake Ragsdale is a third grader who will attend both competitions with her robot Timmy.
She's new to robotics so she built a Simple Claw Bot.
"I said this looks easy so I gave it a try and I built it. You can use it for picking up trash and you can just use it for having fun sometimes," Ragsdale said.
Cherry Lyn Amata, the Robotics coach, couldn't contain her excitement because her team has worked so hard.
"I'm in heaven right now. That's how proud I am. I'm not just proud of my kids, but also with the parents," Amata explained.
"He's doing really really good. I'm really proud of him," said Sabur Kahn.
Kahn's son Isa is 8-years-old and before robots he loved hot wheels!
"Whenever he asked me, he gets the forms and other things. I sign him up right away because he is very interested in these things," Kahn added.
While this is an impressive group, it's not just Cross Country that's excelling when it comes to Robotics. A total of 10 schools will be represented from Baltimore City.
Gino Tagaytay runs the program for city schools. He says Baltimore is number three in the country this year per capita when it comes to Robotics.
"It's the result of years of work from the kids, the coaches, school’s administrators. We've been looking forward to this moment when we make a name for Baltimore City. You always hear about bad things about the city. Robotics is one of the really proud programs that we have," Tagaytay explained.
They're a team.
You can see they have a special comradery as they work together to accomplish their goal and whether they cross the finish line first or not, they're all winners.
"I told them when you win the competition that's an extra bonus point from God. If you don't win, cherish the moment, the experience," Amata said.
The parents set up a GoFundMe to raise funds to help the team with their travel fees. To donate, click here.
