Fort Worth ISD high school girls help teach robotics to younger students with Bot Builders programs
At Fort Worth Public Library branches, fourth through eighth graders are learning to code and build robots with the help of the Young Women's Leadership Academy.
When Fort Worth Mayor Mattie Parker visited the all-female competitive robotics team at the academy, otherwise known as The Dork Side, the high school girls pitched Bot Builders to her.
It is a mentorship-based robotics program in which the girls teach young kids about their passion for free. Mayor Parker connected the team to the Fort Worth Public Library. On the day CBS News Texas visited, the students were attempting to create and code robot that can push a windmill to release canisters.
"Robotics is like, you can program something," said Wyatt Landry, in charge of building the robot that day. "It's just like it's alive, but it's not."
Both boys' moms watched their sons learn.
"I'm so excited about it," said Jennie Wright, Wyatt's mother. "I think that it will help his future to learn this now."
Robotics and coding were subjects the women never touched when they were in school.
"My son's really into coding," said Jace's mother Ashli McMillian. "I think he's going to go that direction professionally too, so trying to support any way that I can."
Junior Ila Avila helped build the bot.
"I feel great, just being able to spread STEM to younger kids, especially since I don't think it's as prominent in elementary schools as it should be," said junior Ila Avila, who helped teach the boys how to build the bot. "Especially as we keep going up through ages, I think a lot of the internet is lost."
Junior Annika Gronberg made sure the robot's measurements were accurate.
"I love seeing how their minds work, figuring out how they're going to solve the problems," Gronberg said. "Because a lot of times, they see a solution that I would never have thought of."
After a few close misses, the boys put their heads together and made some tweaks. Suddenly, all the canisters were off the windmill—another successful Bot Builders mission.
