AFTER a whirlwind weekend in Pretoria, two Grantleigh School robotics teams put everything on the line and claimed third and fourth places at the National Robotics Olympiad.
The teams, consisting of four Grade 5 pupils, competed for a chance to take their impressive skills abroad.
Gabriella Spies and Nicolas Scrase succeeded. Winning the bronze medal in the Elementary (under 13-years-old) Regular category, their top three placing earned them an invitation to the World Robotics Olympiad finals in Doha, Qatar in November.
After recently proving their skills and taking home the gold at the provincial Olympiad in Durban, the teams were selected with 20 others nationwide to compete in the national finals.
Their task was to build a robot entirely out of LEGO pieces and programme it to perform a task within a limited time frame.
This year’s theme was ‘Pearl Diving’ and involved completing a task underwater.
Although Grantleigh is currently only offering robotics in the elementary phase, the popular subject will soon include junior and high school pupils.
