St. Theresa robotics team invited to Lego event in Florida

A robotics team from St. Theresa Middle School in Gonzales has been invited to compete at the FIRST Lego League Florida Sunshine Invitational in June.

The five-person team consists of Brody Bernard, Landon Herndon, Jack Rodrigue, Caroline St. Pierre and Rowan Stromberg who are all sixth through eighth grade students at the school.

Team members have been meeting since August to code an autonomous robot and create an innovation project incorporating their hobbies and the arts as part of the FIRST Lego League Challenge Masterpiece season.

The challenge introduces science, technology, engineering and math to students in fourth through eighth grade by introducing research, coding, and building a robot made entirely of Lego bricks that will navigate through multiple robot game missions.

The local team competed against 60 teams at the Louisiana championship in January earning fourth overall, a finalist award in robot design, and scored the highest point total in school robotics history.

Eighty-seven teams are invited to the invitational with one representative from each state along with selected international teams.

Because of their performance at the state competition, the team secured the only Louisiana invitation to the competition held at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

The team is currently raising money to cover the cost of registration, equipment to build a prototype of their innovation project, and travel expenses. Sponsorship opportunities are available and donations can be sent to St. Theresa.