Meet the Wrexham girls hoping their Lego robot will land them a ticket to Texas

  • ITV Wales reporter Joanne Gallacher went along to visit Jac the Lego robot.

A group of Wrexham teenagers hope their tubs of Lego will land them a ticket to Texas after building and programming a robot from scratch.

The girls from Ysgol Morgan Llwyd have given up their lunch breaks to learn coding and build 'Jac,' a robot entirely made from Lego.

They will now compete against other schools in north Wales in March, with a national engineering competition to follow.

If successful, the pupils hope to land a spot in a worldwide competition in Texas.

Head of Design and Technology at the school Jessica Evans says it has been a "great experience."

She told ITV Wales: "Lego club came about last year. The pupils wanted to take part in a robotics competition. "Prior to that I had no knowledge whatsoever of robotics so I got my head down and learnt to code."

The school was asked to take part by the charity Engineering Education Wales. Credit: ITV Cymru Wales

The school was asked to take part by the charity Engineering Education Wales. They held the First Lego League Challenge on behalf of the Institute of Engineering Technology.Last year they won the North Wales heat and went through to the UK final.

Year 11 pupil Grace has enjoyed helping the younger students with the Lego club. She said: "I really like how this year it's a team of all girls.

"There's a big demand for women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Maths and I think it's important to encourage younger pupils to take up STEM activities".

It is hoped the project will make the girls think of a career in what can be a male-dominated environment.

Ms Evans said: "I'm a big believer in getting more girls into STEM subjects, it's a brilliant career for them. "There's a massive deficit in people going into STEM jobs in the first place and let alone girls so I think it's a good place to do this competition and get a bit of a love for the subject.

The girls have given up their lunch breaks to learn coding. Credit: ITV Cymru Wales

As well as building the robot, they have put together a website and a board which 'Jac' has to move around.

Pupil Sophie said "There are a lot of things the robot has to do. It has to pick up things, push things and move things around the board."

For Lottie, learning coding has been about discovering something she never knew she'd enjoy.She said: "I never really knew how to code, my brother's really good at stuff like that but I've never really been interested in it before."

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