‘A dream come true:’ Landmark Middle School’s Robotics Team prepares for a national competition

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — A Jacksonville middle school robotics team is taking their skills to a national stage.

The “Cybots” from Landmark Middle School won the FIRST LEGO League State Championship in early March.

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Now, they have the opportunity to compete in the FIRST LEGO League World Championship Tournament in Houston, Texas.

“Being on the robotics team is really fun and we can just bring all of our ideas to solve problems,” Briar Agidius, an eighth grader at Landmark Middle School, said.

Briar said he and his brother, Carson, went to a robotics camp in second grade.

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“It was really fun, I learned how to code there,” Briar said.

And that’s when they both found a passion.

Briar and Carson are two of six students a part of the “Cybots” at Landmark Middle School.

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For the last two years, robotics coach Avis Collier said her students have qualified for regional and state competitions.

“They decided to create a virtual reality escape room,” Collier said.

Collier said the FIRST LEGO League Challenge is a global initiative to get students more involved in STEM.

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“You have a real-world problem where you are just trying to use STEM concepts, the project engineering, the design engineering process to tackle a real-world problem,” Collier said.

And now they are headed to compete on an even bigger stage.

“What it’s going to look like is a dream come true,” Collier said. “We never imagined that we would be on a world stage with 200 teams across the world that are going to come and compete.”

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When they compete at the national championship, the team of students will have around two-and-a-half minutes to complete as many missions as possible.

The team heads to compete in Houston, Texas, on April 17 and they are trying to raise funds to get there.

If you would like to learn more about how you can help the team, here is the link to their GoFundMe.

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