Byrd Elementary students build robots from scratch at Goochland STEM camp

Eleven Byrd Elementary students spent four days building custom robots from scratch at Goochland County Public Schools’ STEM camp, then put their machines to work on a challenge built around collecting and depositing plastic “pollen” balls. The assignment looked like a game, but it forced young students to wrestle with structure, balance, controls and software at the same time.

The students were split into three teams and had to scavenge for parts, figure out where to mount a computerized control hub, and keep rebuilding when the code did not work. That kind of trial-and-error is the point of the exercise: the camp pushed persistence, collaboration and debugging, not just speed or decoration. GCPS ran the 2026 STEM Camp from June 2 through June 5 at the Goochland Middle/High School Complex and charged a $100 fee.

Byrd Elementary itself anchors the story in a real local pipeline. The school sits at 2704 Hadensville Fife Rd in Goochland, serves students in grades PK-5, and Virginia lists it as fully accredited for the 2025-26 school year. Principal Andrew Meiller leads the school, and Dr. Andrew R. Armstrong serves as superintendent for Goochland County Public Schools.

The division has been building this kind of summer and enrichment work into its schedule. GCPS says its summer programming is meant to give students unique experiences that strengthen, broaden and deepen learning, and says enrichment programs are led by certified teachers. The district also says all five of its schools are Apple Distinguished Schools, and the Virginia Department of Education identifies Goochland as one of 15 School Divisions of Innovation in the state.

For families looking beyond a one-week camp, the county already has a broader STEM path in place. Goochland Education Foundation’s GEF EdVentures offers STEM/Robotics at Byrd, Goochland and Randolph elementary schools, backed by a $30,000 investment in maker spaces across those three campuses. That means the robot challenge at Byrd was not an isolated summer novelty, but part of a larger effort to put tools, technical thinking and hands-on problem-solving in front of elementary students before they reach middle school.