Richmond school students to compete in robotics league

Six fifth graders from Richmond Elementary School are competing in the invitational round of the 2017-2018 Wonder League Robotics.

The students, competing under the Bionic Super Freaks team name, learned creative problem solving, coding and robotics by competing against more than 22,000 students in collaborative teams to design solutions to science and technology challenges.

More than 7,100 teams from 63 countries participated in this year’s competition. Teams in the U.S. hailed from every state, with significant participation from California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, New York and Texas.

The following students are members of the Bionic Super Freaks: Weston Glover, Connor Kirack, Alex Shaw, Sam Blue, Marcus Owen and Kawika Hathaway.

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The Wonder League is a growing, worldwide network of elementary coding and robotics clubs using Wonder Workshop’s all-inclusive program to inspire an early love of coding, computer science, tangible learning and STEM education. Clubs form through schools, communities, homes and friendship. Teams of students between the ages of 6 and 12 with access to one set of Dash & Dot robots — which students program using code —participate in the Robotics Competition, where they develop problem solving, growth mindset and creativity skills through learning to code.

The team was sponsored by Mrs. Dede Heimbigner, fifth grade teacher. Heimbigner said that their accomplishment recognizes the hard work and dedication the students put into the competition since November when the competition began. She said, “The students have dedicated hours and hours of their personal time working
toward this goal. They have met before and after school, during winter break and spring break. They have worked remarkably well together and have brought each of their individual strengths to the team.”

“We are inspired by the incredible response to this year’s Wonder League competition. To see the number of teams participating continue to grow points to what we all know to be true: All kids love putting their boundless imaginations and intuitive problem-solving skills to work in concrete environments,” said Vikas Gupta, CEO and co-founder of Wonder Workshop. “As parents and teachers, by providing all kids with access to robotics and coding today, we are giving rise to a far more diverse future generation of creators and problem solvers.”