About 30 students can be seen working on robots in Room 116. In groups of up to 15, they design, build and code robots for the upcoming annual Botball Robotics Competition every Friday A-block.

Botball Robotics is a national educational competition to help promote science, engineering, technology, math and writing skills. Students use Legos and sensors to help their robots maneuver around a game board without the use of a remote control. This gives them the opportunity to learn how to work with the sensors and code them to work with the robot. Students are also required to keep a log of their engineering process that is later presented in the regional tournament.

Computer Science teacher and activity sponsor Marion Billington said the results of the preparation are really in the hands of the students.

“The harder you work, the more you get out of it,” he said.

According to Billington, Jefferson’s teams usually place in the top five in the regional tournament.

This year, the competition has been scheduled to take place on April 20. Jefferson currently has three registered teams. If a team does well enough, they will be able to attend the Global Conference on Educational Robots in Oklahoma in early July.