This is Lauren and Macie, and they make up the Engineering Barbies, a girl-powered VEX Robotics middle school team out of Troy, Missouri.

Starting with just a bucket of parts at the beginning of the school year to competing in tournaments with a full functioning robot, the goal for them is to make it to state and national championships, because after that, they could take one of seven spots to compete in the VEX Robotics World Championship this year in St.

Louis.

Lauren and Macie have been doing robotics for about two years.

Do we have air?

A little bit.

I really like the engineering and being able to test a bunch of different ideas and, you know, change things and competing.

I really like to build, so I joined Robotics of the Hill.

Robotics involves the use of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

Yes, they build robots, but there's a lot more to it.

Here they are competing at a tournament in Troy, one of the many that brings them closer to worlds.

At these tournaments, they have to code, drive, strategize, notebook everything for judges, collaborate, and compete.

With a lot of trial and error.

Really the game, it just changes a lot what you need from your robot and what you build and there's just a lot of things that sometimes they don't work together so you just have to redo and redo and you usually just end up with the best result that you can build.

The game this year for the VEX V5 Robotics Competition is called Push Back.

It takes place on a 12 foot by 12 foot playing field with 88 blocks.

A red alliance and a blue alliance made up of two teams each compete in matches.

You gain points by scoring blocks into goals and making it back to the parking zone before the end.

It's about a two minute match, a quick game, where every point matters.

And the students are in charge.

I am not allowed to say a word.

Like competition day is I just get to hang out and watch everything and just be there and be their cheerleaders and support them and encourage.

And they do all of the work.

Kids being in charge isn't a common narrative.

But coach Jenni tells me that for robotics, it can be an important part of empowering the students.

Jenni - The critical thinking and the problem solving skills that they're getting out of it is just something no matter what field, what job, it doesn't have to be robotics or programming related that they're going to do as they go on to college.

Those things are going to benefit them in any position that they're going to do as well as just life skills and their learning and things that they don't learn in other classes, just in a different way or, and for some of our students, they might struggle with like their core classes.

They may not be super into like, like ELA class or math class, but robotics is their thing.

Programs like this in rural Missouri haven't always existed.

In 2019, the Missouri University of Technology and Science partnered with Project Lead the Way, a non-profit that promotes pre-engineering courses in K-12 schools.

They bring state-funded grants to districts and serve more than 600 public and private school districts in the state.

But just as programs like this are more unique, so are all-girl teams.

Most robotics teams are co-ed, or just the boys.

"Last year they started as an all-girls team and they just wanted to be just the girls.

They didn't want to be with the boys, which was fine.

And really I think they're underestimated.

So we see that a lot with our girls in STEM.

They really are very, very knowledgeable and can very much keep up with some of the boys.

So to be able to just see them grow and where they've come from is amazing.

They're just rocking and rolling and they got their bid to state early in the season with a design award and a robot skills champion award right away.

So that's just super excited.

And now we're focusing on just their tweaking things and getting a game plan together for state because after going to worlds one year, every team wants to go back again.

Once you go once, it's hard not to go again.

For these kids, robotics is like a sport.

I saw firsthand just how exciting yet intense tournaments leading up to worlds can be.

Judges are crawling on the floor to inspect final placements.

Students are tinkering with their robots over and over.

Lauren and Macie hope other kids get to experience it, too.

If you really work hard enough, then you can do a lot of different stuff.

And it's not like you have to be able to be the best at everything.

You can just kind of have your category and do your thing, but with your team.

And it's a lot of fun.

It is going to take a lot of time.

It's going to be frustrating.

But if you just stick to it and you just keep going and eventually you'll be able to find good design for a robot and you'll have a team to work with and you all can communicate and also in robotics, I hope for them to learn problem-solving and teamwork skills.

Do it!

Don't let the funding or the time or thinking your students are not in the right area or have the abilities because they have so many abilities.

Like just do it.

Let the kids do it.

Like the student led, I don't have to do a whole lot.

They come in, they get the robots out, they clean up, they set the fields.

Like we're having an event, they set up everything for it.

Like they just do it, let them have the experience of it.

And they will just grow.