The engineers and creative thinkers of tomorrow are getting a solid head start at McDowell Mountain Elementary School with the continued success of the Robotics Team.

Headed up by Jennifer Harley, Jill Cooper and Terry Minniti-Wright, the McDowell Mountain Robotics Team has grown over the past year, with about 30 kids now taking part in the program.

Much like the high school and Charter School programs, these youngsters pile into a classroom every week to work on their robots, share new ideas and figure out new ways to tackle objectives.

Competing in a VEX Robotics field similar to that of their high school counterparts, the McDowell Mountain club uses plastic pieces to construct their robots that, this year, are tasked with stacking and sliding blocks around a playing field to score points.

Competitions feature two teams running at the same time, with the drivers swapping off in the middle of the competition just to make things more interesting.

This year’s contraptions are called “claw bots,” with an arm that works well to push blocks around, as well as pick them up and stack them on one another.

While the basic design is outlined for the students, the construction comes down to small groups of kids working together, who must figure out the correct build and the programming for themselves.

But just because everyone is working off the same instructions doesn’t mean there isn’t room for creative inspiration.

One group, for instance, had attached extra pieces to the back of their robot for additional weight, as lifting a block too high was causing the machine to tip over otherwise.

While many McDowell Mountain robotics teams competed at the recent locally hosted VEX competition, the students were excitedly putting the finishing touches on their robots just a couple of weeks before the big showdown.

Julian Sepulveda, Isaiah Pattea and Brandon Chiles, for instance, were excited to share their love of building and robotics.

“I used to always love Legos,” Sepulveda said.

“When I heard they were starting the club, I decided to join and I’ve loved it ever since. My favorite part is making robots with my friends, adding additions and making it better.”

Chiles agreed.

“Being with my team has been great,” he added.

“What I’m best at is building, so that’s what I like to do.”

All three of the guys agreed that they hope to keep going with robotics for a good long while.

“I want to keep doing it until I get to college,” Sepulveda said.

“I want to see what’s going to happen when I get to college if I keep doing robotics.”

Pattea said he also hopes to see the robotics programs continue to grow around town.

“I really like this, so I want to keep doing it until I can’t,” he said.

“We can only do it until sixth grade, I think, and then it starts again in high school. I hope they start a new club in middle school.”

Emerson Uphoff and Eliana Bartman are also in the McDowell Mountain program, making up part of team “Girls Rule.”

Uphoff said she likes to build “stuff” with her brother using Legos and thought that might translate well into robotics.

“I really like it,” she added.

“I like building the robots and I like when we’re working as a team.”

Bartman said she first learned about robotics in Mrs. Cooper’s summer school program, so she was happy to hear it was coming to the regular school year, too.

“We got to choose our teams, and I liked that, so I told all of my friends to join,” she said.

“Our robot has a brain and some batteries and it’s called the claw bot. We have to control it ourselves.”

When asked what their “perfect robot” would be, Uphoff said hers would fly.

“Mine would probably fly, too, but it would also have these different powers so it could help people and help me with my homework,” Bartman added.

“So it would be, like, a homework machine.”