The robotics class, now called Engineering, has some surprising new things this year.

The two-year Engineering class has been in Tupelo High School for about seven years. It is taught by Amanda Wood, and many students are excited about the class.

“I like that we travel a lot, and I like putting things together and taking them apart,” sophomore Aleria Story said.

The students have only been in one competition, but they still have three more to go. Every competition that the students go to is different. They never do the same theme twice and the games are always unique. The requirements on what they have to do change based on the theme of the game.

In their next competition in Ridgeland, Mississippi, the theme is Vex Skyrise. Team members have to build a robot that fits in an 18-by-18-by-18-inch box and it has to reach five feet and score tubes on the Skyrise section.

So far only two teams are qualified to go to state this year.

“We usually show up about an hour early to get our robots checked and to see if our robots meet the goal qualification, size and height requirements,” sophomore Reed McNeal said. “We will be posted with different teams, red and blue. There is always a random pairing.”

Most of the students have rated Engineering as their favorite class because they like to simply “build robots.”