Robotics teams from the Kilby Laboratory School, located on the campus of the University of North Alabama, are holding a sponsorship campaign and a fundraiser to assist them in competing in the VEX Robotics World Championship on April 29 through May 4 in Dallas, TX.
This is the second year in a row the elementary school will be representing the Alabama in largest robotics completion on a world stage.
The Kilby robotics teams will be fundraising at the Sam’s Club in Florence on Saturday, April 13 and Sunday, April 14.
Misty Buerhaus, the robotics coach at Kilby, and her team are also actively preparing for the upcoming championship through practice sessions.
“We have a campaign right now where students were given a calendar where they logged their practice time, and they asked individuals to do some sponsorships,” said Kirkman.
Six teams, ranging from grades four through six recently qualified to compete at the Alabama State Regional VEX IQ Tournament, which took place at Auburn University back in February.
“It’s just been amazing. We started out with between 15 to 20 kids interested in learning how to build robots, [learning how to] drive them [and] code them. Every year, it's just gotten bigger and bigger,” said Dr. Eric Kirkman, Director of the Kilby Laboratory School.
Teams from Kilby won the competition at Auburn University, and three teams from the school were invited to compete at the upcoming 2024 VEX Robotics World, where they will compete against 400 teams from around the globe. The fundraising events at the Sam’s Club in Florence this weekend will help assist the teams ahead of the world contest.
“We just want to give everybody an opportunity to help us out, because we are representing the Shoals area, we're representing Florence, we're representing North Alabama, but more importantly, we're actually representing the entire state of Alabama,” said Kirkman.
The VEX Robotics World Championship will be held on April 29 through May 4 at the Kay Baily Hutchison Convention Center in Dallas, TX.
More information on the Kilby Laboratory School robotics program can be found here.
