Robotics students from Jemison High School received second place nationwide in technology problem solving at a competition held June 28-July 2 in Texas.

“I was very proud of everyone,” JHS robotics teacher Brooke Elliott said. “Everyone worked really hard, and we were thrilled to learn that we placed second in the whole nation.”

The 37th annual National Technology Student Association Convention in Grapevine, Texas had more than 6,400 students, with three representatives from each state and two countries including Germany and Turkey.

Elliott said the students were given a list of materials and were challenged to build

a hovercraft onsite and land the hovercraft inside a bull’s-eye.

JHS students missed placing first by 0.4 seconds. Altoona High School in Pennsylvania won first place.

“I was very proud of our six students who qualified from Alabama to represent the Jemison chapter,” Ellison said. “Our students worked hard to raise money from numerous fundraisers and support from the city of Jemison.”

Students Dylan Levering and Fletcher Brantley, from JHS, received second place for the technology and problem solving.

Other JHS students included Brynn Elliott and Shianne Conn, who competed in essays on technology; and Sawyer Smith and Jack Bragg, who competed in the technology bowl.

Jay LeCroy, an instructor in the STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) program at LeCroy Career Technical Center, said this is the highest a school from Chilton County has ever scored.

“We had someone rank ninth before, but we have never gotten this close nationally,” LeCroy said.

Other students from a team with the STEM Academy also competed at the convention.

LeCroy said the level of competition is strong at the event, and he is hoping to include a team from Clanton to attend the national competition next year.

“We are hoping next year we can have a team from Clanton go compete,” LeCroy said. “That would be something we would really like to see. If you look at some of the top jobs in the nation right now, they are all jobs related to science and math. The students who come to these competitions are the students who will be getting those jobs. It is a really tough competition.”

This is the third year Jemison and the STEM Academy at LeCroy have competed at the Alabama and the National Technology Student Association.

Students compete in science, technology, engineering and math events in Alabama to determine who is eligible to advance to the nationals.