MASSENA -- Nightengale Elementary School’s robotics team will head to St. Louis, Mo. at the end of April to compete for the robotics world championship.

They recently won the local title at Clarkson University, earning them their trip west.

On Thursday, robotics advisor Bill Lint brought the team and some of their Lego contraptions and gave a demonstration to the Board of Education.

The kids program and build the robots to perform specific tasks, with the objective of making a completely automated process with no manual assistance.

“We design our strategy around every kid touching the robot in the competition,” Lint told the board. “A lot of our practice looks like a NASCAR pit change.

The team members all said a few words about their favorites parts of competing and demonstrated their specific tasks. In one case, a girl programmed a robot that resembled a forklift to drive over to a refrigerator and dump food from it, all of which was assembled from Legos.

“My favorite part about robotics is programming and building,” sixth grader Emma Stickney told the board.

Superintendent Pat Brady said he thinks the program is good for the students.

“These are great opportunities for kids to learn … all those things we want in our kids,” he told the team.