Week after week, Bella kept showing up for robotics meetings. The team’s robot was looking really cool. Most of the time, Bella just did whatever the older kids instructed her to do. Occasionally she’d ask a question—she really did want to learn more about robotics, after all!
When the day of the competition finally came, Bella’s mom drove her to the town hall.
Bella took a deep breath and walked in. Throughout the halls there were lots of adults and older kids in team T-shirts yelling, cheering, and carrying half-assembled robots.
When Bella finally found the exhibit hall, she gasped at the sight of it. There were booths everywhere, each with a team of kids, a presentation explaining their project, and a robot on a display table. There were robots rolling, robots climbing, robots printing out data results, and so many other cool projects.
“Bella! Over here!”
Bella turned. There was Mrs. Jacobs, wearing a bright green MASON CREEK ROBOTICS TEAM T-shirt. The next thing she knew, Bella was wearing one too. It was big on her, but Bella was thrilled. Now she felt like she was officially part of the team!
There was just one problem: The team wasn’t working very well as a team. Bryce was upset and Naomi was frantic. All the other kids were crowded around a smartphone, offering suggestions to a girl named Jenna. She was trying to get the robot to work, but she wasn’t succeeding.
“Jenna! Shut it down and start over.”
“Jenna, press one-two-three at once. That will override the system.”
“Just turn it off. Not the phone, the bot. You need to reboot it.”
Meanwhile, the robot seemed to be trying to respond to several commands at once. They had programmed it to move until it detected light on its solar panels. Then it was supposed to go retrieve a potted plant, bring it to the light source, and position it accordingly. Instead, it was rolling back and forth under the light source the team had set up. It kept knocking over potted plants. Dirt was spilling everywhere!
“This is a disaster,” wailed Bryce.
“We have to get it together!” said Naomi. “We are up for judging in five minutes.”
“I don’t know what to do,” said Jenna. “It’s not listening to me!”
Just then Bella had a thought.
“Um . . . could I try something?” she asked Jenna.
Jenna looked up from the screen, startled. But she seemed to realize that she wasn’t going to be able to get the robot to work. She handed the phone to Bella.
“Thanks,” said Bella. She pulled up the string of commands on the phone and quickly began to edit it. When she was finished, she handed the phone back to Jenna. She swept the dirt off the display table and put the plant into the robot’s arms.
“Try it now,” she told Jenna.
Jenna did as she was told . . . and so did the robot.
“Woo-hoo!” All the team members began to cheer as the robot started moving toward the light source, then rotated the plant into position.
