Students at Elwood Middle School are taking robotics to new heights. As part of the 2019-2020 Vex IQ Challenge, “Squared Away,” students were tasked with building a robot designed to lift three plastic cubes onto raised platforms.

Two teams, comprised of sixth and eighth grade Elwood Middle School students, also competed in the competition’s Teamwork Challenge, during which they worked collaboratively to score points in one of two ways: by placing 3” diameter balls inside one or more of their team’s 7” cubes, or by moving their cubes to their respective scoring zones.

During the five qualifying matches, each team competed against a team from another school to accomplish the task. In the fourth qualifying round, the two EMS teams earned a total of 60 points.

Overall, the middle school’s sixth grade team tied for 20th place and the eighth grade team, after finishing ninth in the qualifying rounds, earned third place with a strong performance in the finals.

The students had been building their Vex IQ robots during club meetings since October and performed spectacularly well, according to advisor Dave Trabulsi.