An opportunity to go up against the ‘best of the bots' at the VEX Robotics World Championships has been awarded to House of Science Tauranga after qualifying at the 2016 New Zealand VEX Robotics National Championship in Auckland.

The annual two-day event challenged 72 teams to design and build a robot to play against other teams from around the country in a game-based engineering challenge.

Performing exceptionally in the driving skills, during a one-minute time trial, secured House of Science a spot at the World Championships in Kentucky, USA. The charitable trust also took home five trophies, with students from both teams, Dean Strydom, Kate Low, Callum McLeod, Samuel Gillies-Smith, George Feast and Gabby Absalom, walking away with two Division Finalist awards.

Dean and Kate also received the Amaze Award for robots that demonstrated innovative design skills, while House of Science director Chris Duggan was awarded Teacher of the Year. Volunteer of the Year Award went to Paul and Toni de Rijk.

It's the second year House of Science has entered the nationals and Chris is thrilled with the teams' top results.

'We're really proud of our kids. They didn't just compete well; they also represented Tauranga and House of Science admirably. It's really exciting.”

House of Science is a charitable trust, connecting the local science community through the sharing of resources and knowledge. It recently entered into a partnership with the Wright Family Foundation, which provides an annual donation of $100,000, delivering crucial support for an organisation that aligns with their goals of helping individuals achieve their potential.

Robotics is a core part of the House of Science curriculum, offering a school holiday programme which gives children aged 10-14 a platform to experiment, as well as the chance for high school students to build and drive their own constructions.

'Robotics not only develops students' STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics – work, but gives them something to be excited about and focus on – all in one competition,” says Chris.

'Using the latest technology, it teaches them modern-day skills, which are vital to being successful in the 21st Century, including problem solving, communication, collaboration and compromise.”

While students will be fine-tuning their robotics techniques in the next two months, they'll also be fundraising to find the $5000 each required to get them State-side.