SOLID GOLD Brookdale Public School students (L-R) Laura Belford, left, Drake Shipway, Mary Paterson, Grace Thortnton and their teacher Kevin Carter took first place in the Ontario Skills Competition for Grade 7 and 8 Lego Robotics. The competition, held in Waterloo on May 5, included teams from across the province.

After landing a silver medal at the Ontario Skills competition in Lego robotics for two consecutive years, Brookdale Elementary School's robotics team finally got its golden breakthrough at this year's skills competition on May 5.

Grade 7 and 8 students -- Laura Belford, Drake Shipway, Mary Paterson and Grace Thortnton -- successfully designed robots that jumped over pegs, built a three-part Lego car by placing Lego pieces in specific order and went through a maze. They also created a presentation about the design and mechanics of their robots.

"The competition was a difficult one this year, but the students put an effort, and they've always put in an effort, but this time it paid off. The kids produced incredible work," said Kevin Carter, the teacher who taught the students what they needed to know about programming and robotics in order to achieve this victory.

Since the beginning of the year, students have been meeting with Carter for approximately 40 minutes a week to prepare for the competition,

"We usually met during lunch time, twice a week for 20 minutes. The atmosphere at the meetings was pretty serious, but the students still had the chance to have fun and goof around," he said.

During these meetings, Carter taught the students how to program and design robots. The programming was done on the computer and the students had to figure out the motor outputs that make the robots move and perform.

There are 21 members in Brookdale's robotics club, however only the four students received gold. For more information about the competition visit www.skillsontario.com.