YORK COUNTY, Pa. (WHTM) -- A Midstate robotics team brought back some hardware from the Eastern PA State Competition in March. The students are all homeschooled, and they are now state champions.
Engineering, design and teamwork are all skills the Magnus Robotics team has been honing for months.
"I love the building part of it," team member Simon Schreiber said.
Many kids get involved through robotics clubs at school, but the five 10, 11 and 12-year-old students on Magnus' elementary school team are all homeschooled in Central PA.
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"We wanted to create more opportunities for homeschooled students to have access to activities that lend themselves to STEM," Coach Thecla Uriyo said.
Those opportunities are paying off for kids like Sia Bbalo, who followed in her brother's footsteps.
"I got to finally be a part of a robotics team and I was so happy," Bbalo, who is the team leader, said.
Bbalo and her teammates built, designed and programmed their own robot to complete a set of challenges in competition. This year it was throwing balls into a box.
"On this side, it's more trial and error because you just have to know pretty much where to shoot from," team member Micah Hess, who helps drive the robot, said.
In March, the team took the final product to the Eastern PA State Competition and came home winner, collecting three separate awards.
"When we got the excellency award, all of us were surprised and we were really excited and happy," Schreiber said.
The season is not over yet. The team qualified for the Vex Robotic World Championship in May.
"We'd come so far since our first robot design," Bbalo said.
Schreiber said, "It's been our goal to go to worlds...it's just amazing to be around there."
The team is planning to hold a few fundraising events during National Robotics Week, April 2 to April 10, to raise money to fund their trip to the world championship.
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