In March, over 50,000 students from all around the world gathered for one reason: their shared love for building robots.
According to VOA News, high schoolers showed their team-built robots in the 2013 FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology) Robotics Competition to a bleacher-filled convention center in Washington D.C., complete with yelling fans, mascots and team shirts.
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Teens watched -- and sometimes operated -- robots that played against each other in a game called "Ultimate Ascent." The purpose of the game was to land as many discs into the goals within two-minute matchups, and the top three winners qualified to compete in the world championship later in April.
Last year's winners were from Woodrow Wilson High School in Washington and called their team, "Tiger Pride." Even though they did not advance to the world championship again this year, the students were happy about the event.
"I really like learning about mechanics and robotics, and I think it's important that girls especially get involved in engineering," Larissa Simon, a student on the team, told VOA News.
These after-school clubs aren't the only ones making waves when it comes to robotics in schools. Also in March, the Career and Technical Education Academy in Hutchinson, Kansas added a new teacher to their faculty list: Nao, the robot. The "mechanical teacher," built by the French startup company Aldebaran Robotics, teaches a computer programming class.
Another robot -- created by students in the Blitz Robotic Club at Conifer High School in Conifer, Colorado -- made news in early February when it helped save the life of a cat named Flipper.
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