Robotics students get with the program

The School District of Manatee County pushes the importance of engineering and coding lessons.

LIZ RAMOS SENIOR EDITOR

Noah Jackson, a Gilbert W. McNeal Elementary School fifth grader, was focused.

With a controller in hand, he was having his robot zip around the VEX IQ competition board trying to push small orange pucks out of the dispensaries and across a bar to the other side of the board to earn points.

The pressure was mounting as the clock kept counting down. Jackson gave the controller to his teammate fifth grader Hayden Laning, who worked to keep pushing as many pucks across the board.

The clock finally hit zero.

Jackson and Laning were relieved.