Robotics club needs funds for global competition

Taking a look at the bright side, a group six, 5th and 6th grade girls from Valley Horizon Elementary school have qualified to compete in a global robotics club competition.

They are among 20 other teams from five other countries to compete this June in San Jose, California. In order for them to compete, they are asking for a little help in fundraising.

“The name of our club is First Lego League and there are three parts to it, the project, the core values and the robot,” Y ukatie Rangel, a 6th grader in the club said.

This isn’t just any regular school club. This impressive group of girls put hours of hard work into their project and some might say they are defying the status quo.

“The project is when you find a real life problem and then you make a real life solution and the core values is how we work together as a team, how we cooperate and then the robot is we build a robot out of legos and we program it to do missions on a table,” Rangel said.

Mrs. Colton, the science teacher who has been teaching young girls in her lego club for seven years but this year she says the group is extra special.

This year’s theme is hydrodynamics, which means the girls need to solve a problem dealing with water.

“They talked to a law enforcement pilot and we asked our local community super heroes what kind of problems they face … They mentioned when they were out on patrol sometimes they run into people who get stranded in the desert and it takes a while for search and rescue on the ground to get to them and give them water,” Elizabeth Colton, the Lego coach said.

They started searching for an answer back in August.

“First we started off with just regular cardboard boxes from the solar eclipse we had and we tried dropping them after putting water bottles in them and duck taping them but they broke and our coach had some styrofoam boxes and we tried those and they worked the best,” Mia Titensor, another 6th grader in the club said.

Then they went to the regional competition at the Arizona Western College followed by the state competition at Arizona State University in Tempe where they won the Most Innovative Award.

Now they are preparing for the global competition in San Jose.

“I’ve learned that if you work together as a team you can accomplish anything,” Titensor said.

The only problem is these girls may not get the chance to compete due to lack of finances.

“We don’t charge our girls to be on the team, it’s no cost and so right now we are really trying to cover the cost to travel, gas, car rental, lodging, the food and that’s not any extras we are just doing the basic fundraising just to cover costs to get us there and so it’s really important for us to have some sponsors or other people who will help donate,” Colton said.

These girls have the chance to not only represent Yuma and Arizona but also our country.

“There’s a lot of teams that who submitted ideas but to be qualified in the top 20 at such a young age for an all girls STEM club is a pretty amazing feat, like it’s just awesome and I couldn’t be more proud as a teacher just to see how hard these young ladies work … our theme has been team work makes the dream work and they have just gone the whole way,” Colton said.

They are hosting several fundraisers leading up until the competition. If you are interested in helping these girls out they have a L ularoe fundraiser on May 5, a C hipotle takeover on May 15, a C huck E Cheese takeover on May 24 from 3 p.m. to 7 p.m.

and a Brewers takeover on May 25 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

You can also donate to their GoFundMe page here. Or, visit their social media pages at Valley Horizon First Lego League.

#superaquasquad

#operationwaterdropyuma