D.C. Students Build Their Own Robot

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Four students and a teacher from D.C.'s Friendship Chamberlain Charter School are heading to Canada-- with their robot.

The students, a group of four 6th and 7th graders, designed the robot themselves. The small, gray device uses an optical scanner to find and follow a line.

"They literally build the robot themselves," explains Rajeeni Galloway, the SmartLab facilitator at the school. "They did the program themselves. They did the research themselves. I just pick up the pieces when they fall on the floor."

The robot is modeled after NASA's robots Spirit and Opportunity, which landed on Mars in January of 2004.

"The toughest moment was when we were struggling to get our work done before we had to turn it in," said 11-year-old Miracle Bowlding, one of the four girls on the project.

Her colleague, 11-year-old Nia Lancaster, added, "I learned that, if you keep working at a task, and if you don't give up, you can get the task done, and you can get really good at it."

The D.C. designed robot will face off against other student-designed machines at the National Society of Black Engineers conference in Toronto.