ROSE CREEK — There’s just something about Mower County VEX Robotics teams that makes the world watch them.

Southland Elementary School had two VEX Robotics teams make an appearance at the World Championship in Louisville, Kentucky, last weekend. Each team had five students who were able to make it to the competition.

It wasn’t the first time these students competed at the international level, having performed on the world stage last season as well.

“Our region, our area is very competitive,” said Paula Schmitz, Southland Elementary VEX Robotics coach. “Usually our region has the World qualifiers among us, Austin and Sacred Heart. We look forward to raising the bar every year to make us even more competitive for Worlds.”

Southland’s performance this season was one for the books. Both the middle and high school VEX Robotics teams competed on the world stage as well.

In this competition, Southland Elementary School VEX Robotics teams placed in the middle and near the bottom of their division. However, Schmitz expressed her pride for her students who, she said, had greatly improved from the previous season.

“They did improve and they were more competitive this year than last year,” she said. “The biggest thing was that they got to compete with five international countries, which is a really cool thing. This group was very focused, and competing against other international teams using Google translate was an eye-opener for them. To be on a stage with 400 other teams was a very exciting experience.”