An award-winning robotics team in Brooklyn is exploring the world of STEM, building their own robot to compete in competitions.

The “Nerd Herd” robotics team at St. Edmund Elementary School is using its STEM skills to code, build and compete with a robot that's programmed to carry out missions.

"STEM is related to robotics because the students have to have a certain manner of precision with the placement of the robot and the angle at which they’re operating the robot from in order to be successful in the missions,” says Michael Zwosta, robotics coach.

Students at the school are trained in robotics starting in kindergarten, and once they're in the fifth grade they have the opportunity to join the first Lego league robotics team.

This year, the Nerd Herd competed against 20 teams from the city, winning a trophy for their gracious professionalism.

"It shows that us as a Catholic school, even though we’re one of the only Catholic schools in Brooklyn, that we can do this because not a lot of kids can do robotics and it takes a lot of courage, it takes a lot of engineering, and it has brought us to career paths that we want to do when we get older,” says Sophia Russel, "Nerd Herd" robotics team member.

The team designed a robot with the goal of aiding firefighters in search and rescue.

With the simple press of a button, the robot takes off to complete each task.

"Since our robot is so small it could go through like tight spaces and then find the people and the firefighters could communicate with the victims who are trapped under debris in the buildings that fell,” says Jovanna Luberis, "Nerd Herd" robotics team member.

No robot can be completed without first doing research. That research is then used to code the robot so that it can accomplish the missions.