Five Long Beach LARC Robotics Teams earned coveted spots in the International Wonder League Robotics Competition Invitational Round. More than 7,500 teams from 63 countries participated in three rounds of missions over a five-month period, vying for the highly sought after International Invitational Round opportunities. 

A total of fourteen fourth-grade LARC students accomplished this challenging goal and are gearing up for the next round, set to begin in March. Through a series of story-based missions, the groups developed problem-solving, growth mindset, and creativity skills through coding and programming. 

Team 1 is comprised of Alfonso D’Amato, Catherine Maguire and Marissa Miller. Enshan Ramkissoon, Sydney Brandt and Lucia Petty participate on Team 2. Team 3 includes Sebastian Perez, Winter Collinson and Sienna Warren. Tabitha Freeny, Kailyn Kelly and Brooke Nielsen are on Team 4. Team 7 is made up of Eva Gargiulo and Jordan Haltrecht.

The WLRC is an international coding and robotics competition for future tech leaders and innovators. Under the guidance and coaching of Dr. Caitlin King and Justin Sulsky, the LARC robotics teams designed solutions for real-world science and technology challenges by programming their robots. They additionally displayed their scientific thinking through authentic journaling.