Cesar Chavez Academy Middle School has a Robotics program. It is an in-school program where the students have Robotics during 1st hour. In order to make it possible for students to have Robotics classes everyday the school made it an elective on participating students’ schedules. Mr. Lamonica is the teacher in charge of the robotics team.

Robotics is a program where students can learn more about STEM. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and math. According to www.engineering forkids.com, robotics helps improve social skills, problem solving skills and creative thinking skills. It also helps improve computer programing skills and engineering skills. Mr. Lamonica said, “Students in robotics get to practice patience and creative thinking to solve problems. That’s something everyone needs.”

Right now, the robotics team is building a robot for the Freight Frenzy Competition. The competition is less than a month away. In the competition the robot has to go over certain obstacles to win points. In this competition teams have to pick up ducks with a hand that you build into the robot. They also have to move a carousel with ducks in it to make them fall, showing that robot hand works.  A person from the team gets to drive the robot in the competition. At some point in the competition they have to make an alliance with another team. Every member from the team has a role in the competition, including maintenance, driving the robot, presenting the team or handing out merch. The robot is almost done, they just need to test out the wheels to see if they work. The robot’s Halloween codename is Miguel Meyers. This is the second competition the robotics team has participated in.