Sparks Elementary School is the only elementary school in Baltimore County to have VEX Robotics teams.
So the school's two teams of fifth-graders were thrilled to have qualified for the VEX Robotics World Championship in Louisville, Ky., last week. They knew they'd meet kids from around the world and have fun competing with robots they created and programmed themselves.
What they didn't expect was how well they would perform.
One Sparks team of three girls and two boys ended up in ninth place out of 88 elementary school teams in the competition.The ninth-place finishers were Lizzie Lopez, Nick Janney, Cole Borror, Harshini Arumugam and Carly Ross.
"I had no idea how awesome it would be. We could not be happier," said Sparks teacher, Jill Crowley, who started the Robotics Club at the school this year with teacher Beth Ryan.
The other Sparks team of four boys finished in 55th place. "We're very proud of them too," Crowley said. "They gave such good effort."
The all-boys team members were Luke Williams, Nicholas Sackleh, Sean Park and Patrick Guo.
Each Sparks team was paired with 10 teams from other countries for the competitions that involved getting robots to gather and stack plastic blocks on a 4-foot by 8-foot playing field. The matches lasted just 60 seconds.
The matches were held on April 16, 17 and 18. Coming in first was a paired team from China and California.
Crowley said the Hereford Zone kids had the most fun with kids from Puerto Rico and Mexico. Mexican students even presented team member Carly Ross with a pink sombrero as a souvenir.
Each team set up a booth to display information, toys and even food from their country. Sparks kids came home with bags of souvenirs and even had a chance to sample authentic food from Bahrain.
"If we would ever be so lucky as to make it to worlds again, we now know to bring lots of Maryland items," Crowley said.
Sparks is the only elementary school in Baltimore County to have VEX Robotics teams.