Raytown students who won grand prize in Battle of the Brains see their work realized

KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - The Raytown Challenge Gifted Program visited Union Sation to see an exhibit come to life Thursday after they won the grand prize in the Burns & McDonnell Battle of the Brains last year.

“I honestly feel really good about myself,” said student Tristen Fares. “I felt really good about myself when we won.”

The team, made up of more than 40 students, proposed a robotics-themed exhibit – earning the program $50,000 in grant money and the opportunity to work with STEM professionals at Burns & McDonnell to transform the idea into a $1 million exhibit at Science City at Union Station.

“They’ve come for a tour of the construction site,” Raytown School District teacher Megan Finlay said. “They get to see what it looks like now and see how their project is being formed.”

“We got to go around and see stuff, like different exhibits at Science City,” student Gia Britton said. “They took us to this room and showed us what our exhibit was going to be like.”

The team’s exhibit is set to make its debut in September. It’s designed to spread knowledge about the coding and computer programming required for robots to operate.

“We got to talk to the people that are going to build our space and see what their plans are,” said student Abbie Gruenewald. “After that, we do a couple of activities and we get to talk to them about what we want, things they can improve on, and stuff like that.”

The students named the exhibit “Riveting Robots” and it’s something they’ll take pride in for years to come.

“They’re actually going to see that their exhibit will have their name on it, and it will be from their school,” Finlay added.

“When our exhibit comes, I know that people are going to like it,” Fares added.

The exhibit also will dive into elements ranging from mechanical and electrical engineering principles to design systems and structures.

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