BENTON TOWNSHIP — School isn't just about reading, writing and ‘rithmetic anymore. You can add another "r" to that age-old list — robotics. Some local students said they were up to the task -- and they proved it Monday.

Cheerleaders and excited fans rooted for their favorites, but you might not recognize these teams. Students from all over the area wore their unique team uniforms at the Adventist Robotics Challenge held at Lake Michigan College Monday.

“We're pretty confident that the missions we have it programmed to do will succeed,” said competitor Jonathan Babb.

The teams built working robots and programmed them to do specific tasks. All that hard work translated into a lot of fun.

“It was a really good experience, and our computers were down for awhile so we kind of had to hurry and work faster and stuff but it was really fun,” said competitor Kayla Woods.

It's fun now, but one day these little robots could help solve some big problems.

“Using robots to solve problems, to build tools to solve other needs and so forth and with this conservation, you know obviously with our world today, anything we can do to make it better,” explained Bill Wolfer, director of the Adventist Robotics League.