Robotics Students Learn Key Skills
By John Earp
This past Saturday, the Jal Robotics Program held a robotics competition in the Panther Gym. Mr. Johnny Estrada, who heads up the Robotics Program for Jal Schools, said, “Everybody thinks it’s just a robot game, but it’s actually they do a like a science project, which is what they call their innovation project, and then they have what they call core values. It’s basically like the foundation of what they believe and it’s like fun, teamwork, just kind of like some unwritten rules that they follow that helps them, it kind of guides them during their competition.”
A total of 50 robotics students made up 8 teams in the competition Saturday. Jal Robotics is part of the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math) programs that have been put into place by Jal Schools over the past several years. Fifth graders are allowed to participate to see if they would like to be an official part of robotics beginning in sixth grade.
According to Mr. Estrada, the STEM programs “give the students the opportunity to work with robotics, to work with the rockets, to work in the oil field, and gives them opportunity to work with their hands.” Robotics students must learn coding in order to program their robots to perform as designed. Students also learn basic engineering in LegoLeague, which involves building robots with Legos. Robotics students must also speak at the competitions, explaining what their project involves, thus developing their social skills.
Overall Champions at Saturday’s competition were: Artifact Engineers, an 8th grade team consisting of Eli Maes, Jesslyn Estrada, Aye Veliz, and Kyndell O’Quinn. Robot Performance Winners were the Ancient Aztecs, a 7th grade team consisting of Zayli Leyva, Saydie Parsons, Issac Gallegos, Ivan Franco, Nicholas and Lucas Lizarraga. Core Values Winners were the Dirt Diggers, a 6th grade team made up of Easton Mata, Noah Garibay, Damian Zamora, Preslie Norton and Holland Cook. Robot Design Winners were the Robo Diggers, an 8th grade team consisting of Zaine Vega, Ixareli Rodriquez, Addilyn Fabela and Claire Seifts. Innovation Project Award was given to the Fossil Finders, a 7th grade team made up of Whitley Little, Rylee Frank, Sandra Stone and Eliezer Ramos. Teams that advanced to State were: Artifact Engineers, Ancient Aztecs, Dirt Diggers, and Fossil Finders. State is in Albuquerque on February 14th, 2026.
Estrada says the students have to be willing to feel uncomfortable when presenting their projects. He says, “I think that’s going to be a good life lesson because, you know, everything is hard in life, and if we make kids sometimes feel uncomfortable, then they are able to think outside the box. They’re able to understand how to solve a problem. They learn how to collaborate with each other. So it’s just a team building thing that helps kids succeed in the future.” Estrada plans to start promoting robotics programs in other districts in eastern New Mexico next year.