The crowd’s chants grew louder and louder as the spectators intently watched the robots in action.

Jefferson held its annual Robotics Competition on May 3 during eighth period in Gym 1. The robots that participated in the event were the finalists in a series of competitions that had taken place earlier in the week.

Since late March, freshmen had been frantically working to get their robots done in time for the competition. Most of the students were aiming to be part of the “Super Six”, a group of 18 students that would compete in the final Mazebot, Speedbot or Powerbot competition. However, some students decided to focus on the design of their robot and bring their creativity to life by participating in the Beautybot competition.

Students from Glasgow, Holmes and Poe Middle Schools were also invited to watch the competition. A question and answer session was held for these students in the auditorium prior to the start of the main event. The students from the selected middle schools were then allowed to vote for their favorite Beautybot.

The winner of the Beautybot competition was freshman Claire Scoggins who recreated the famous R2D2 robot complete with Star Wars-themed music.

“I was really impressed with Claire’s R2D2 bot. She spent so much time and effort on it, and she really deserved to win,” freshman Emily Cleland said.

The winners of all the competitions were awarded medals and other prizes given by ThinkGeek.com, which has hosted the annual robotics competition for four years. Staff members of ThinkGeek threw video games and books to the audience throughout the competition.

“The entire competition was so much fun. I was really impressed with all of the robots, especially the two final Mazebots,” Cleland said.