Local youth robotics team influencing more girls to get involved
HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Some of the youngest and brightest minds plan on keeping busy over the holiday break. They're part of the robotics team from the Mandarin Immersion Magnet School in Houston.
"This is all parent organized, driven and basically it's a lot of time involved to get these kids to meet and work on weekends," Yusuke Morita said.
Each season, they're given a series of tasks and use the VEX IQ system to construct their robots. Over the course of the year, they strive to solve difficult problems through teamwork and communication.
"Similar to Lego plastic pieces and structures, they can build large robots fairly quickly," Morita explained.
This year, the robotics team made it all the way to the VEX Worlds Competition. The best of the best come from all over the globe to compete.
"The advantage is our teams can speak Mandarin and there are just a ton at of the top form China who only speak Mandarin," Eda Morita said.
"You have to work with them, even if they're speaking a different language. We worked with teams from different countries and it was an eye opening experience," Grace Chu, 11, said.
And there's a lot more that goes into this, besides constructing robots.
"Programing sometimes gets a little hard, with the vectors and Pythagorean Theorem," 10-year-old Sophie Morita said.
She's hoping the skills she's learning today, helps pave the path for her future.
"I think I want to be an engineer, or a programmer" Sophie said.
