The 10-year-old student headed to Estonia in June with her Horsley-based team to represent Australia in the First Lego League World Championships.

Made up of six students aged between nine and 16, Cara’s team, Project Bucephalus, finished 33^rd overall from a pool of 98 teams from all over the world.

They competed in four categories; robot performance, robot design, core values and a research project.

Project Bucephalus took out first place in the core values category for ‘gracious professionalism,’ which recognised exceptional sportsmanship, care and respect towards other competitors. 

The team members were commended for their provision of robot first aid to less-experienced teams, their conduct throughout the competition and their record of teaching the skills of robotics throughout the Illawarra region.

Cara said although she learned valuable robotics skills, it was the life lessons that mattered most to her.

“I learned to be kind to people and learned a lot about other cultures,” Cara said.

In the lead up to the tournament, the team won the Sydney Regional Championship in November and were runner ups in the Australian National Championship in December.

Cara said she was very passionate about Lego Mindstorm robots.

“I love using lego,” she said.

“I love that you can be as creative as you want with it – one team used hairspray in the robot’s hair.”

Cara meets with her team once a week throughout the season which will commence again on August 3. 

Along with her fellow team members, Cara is also involved in teaching robotics after school and in holiday workshops.

This coming season, Cara and her team members will teach a ‘girls rocket into robotics’ class to be hosted at Wollongong West Public School.

On July 25, they will host a robotics demonstration and try out day at Glenquarry Public School to give students the opportunity to see the Lego Mindstorm robots in action and build and operate a robot of their own.