Coral Springs Teachers Prepare Students for New Robotics Season After State Championship Success

by David Volz June 18, 2026

by David Volz June 18, 2026 3 minutes read

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Jennifer Lemon, Mia Hansen, Craig Lehrhaupt, and Kerry-Ann Brown. {David Volz}

Mia Hansen is looking forward to the opening of school.

As the fifth-grade teacher who leads the Park Springs Elementary School robotics team, the Pantherbots, Mia Hansen is eager to meet the students who will participate in VEX IQ events and competitions as school begins.

Last year, Park Springs’ fourth- and fifth-grade team members participated in the VEX IQ program, where students learn to code, build, and drive robots in a strategy-based game.

In March, the Park Springs and Parkside Elementary School robotics teams qualified for the state-level championship in Miami.

“Both teams were really happy to make it to that level, and both our schools were ranked in the top 40 teams in South Florida,” said Hansen.

This year, third graders will join a new team called VEX AIM, where they will learn very basic coding and robotics skills, according to Hansen.

“In the robotics club, the students build, write code, and learn to drive their robots. The teachers are hands-off, and the students must do all the work. It is all student-centered,” said Hansen.

She was among a group of Broward County Public Schools teachers who participated in a robotics professional development course at Pines Collegiate Academy 6-12 on June 17-18. There, they learned about the new game their students will be playing, known as Level Up.

The objective of the game is for students to drive the robots to beanbags, have the robot pick one up, and then deliver it to a multi-level platform. There are five levels at which they can score points. “This is a new game, and we have to learn it before we can guide the students,” said Hansen.

Craig Lehrhaupt, who teaches computer science and leads the Parkside team, is also looking forward to fall. “This is a good program for the students, and I am glad to see they are learning robotics on our team and then going on to compete on middle school teams,” he said.

Jennifer Lemon, who leads the team at Coral Park Elementary School, said her team is participating in the Learning League, which is for beginners and has less competition.

. “The focus is on learning coding and how to build and drive robots. The kids really learn a lot,” she said.

Kerry-Ann Brown, who leads middle- and high-school robotics teams at Millennium 6-12 Collegiate Academy in Tamarac, said her students have learned to build and program more advanced robots.

“At the high school level, the students are working with a more sophisticated robot and then have to learn to build and program it. They have to do all the work themselves,” said Brown.

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Author Profile

David Volz

David Volz has worked as a writer in South Florida for 35 years. He has written for the Sun-Sentinel, Hollywood Gazette, School Transportation News, South Dade News Leaders, Observer among others. He has an MA in Communications from Florida Atlantic University and a BA in Communications from Valparaiso University. Volz teaches Communications at Miami Dade College and Palm Beach State College. He lives in Coral Springs and enjoys running and participating in 5Ks and half-marathons.