The Mater Lakes Academy’s robotics team competed at the Robotics Tower Take Over on Feb. 29 at Florida International University. Their robots “Swedish Fish” placed 20th and “Jolly Ranchers” placed 23rd out of 60 competing teams at the South Florida High School VEX Regional Championship. Students from the school, at 17300 NW 87th Ave. in Miami Lakes, built their robots from scratch. The machines had to be able to pick up blocks and either...

Two brothers who attend Monsignor Edward Pace High School participated in the Senate Page Program for a week during the legislative session that just ended in Tallahassee. Christopher Sykes, a senior, and Corey Sykes, a sophomore, were part of the program in January and met with Sen. Jose Javier Rodriguez, D-Miami, who recommended them to be pages. The brothers also met Sen. Lauren Book, D-Plantation; Sen. Bill Galvano, R-Bradenton as well as...

Barbara Goleman Senior High School’s mock trial team had a memorable experience in February at the Florida High School Mock Trial Competition when they qualified as one of the four finalists for the first time in school history, Law Studies Teacher Ana Soto-Gonzalez said. Goleman’s team was among 30 schools from Miami-Dade County at the contest that has been held since 1991. The Gators ultimately lost to Hialeah Gardens Senior High. Back row:...

A documentary produced by three students from Miami Lakes Educational Center won honorable mention and a $250 prize in the 16th annual C-SPAN StudentCam 2020 competition. Daniel Gonzalez III, Michelle Mairena and Khimmoy Hudson, shown left to right in the photo above, created a six-minute video called “Immigration: The Broken System.” They were among 300 students who received cash prizes in the national contest. C-SPAN assigned competitors a...

Vanessa Valle, Miami-Dade County Schools’ 2021 Francisco R. Walker Teacher of the Year, accepted the keys on March 7 to a new Toyota Corolla sedan. Valle is an English teacher and literacy coach at Hialeah Gardens Senior High. She received her new car, from Kendall Toyota, during the United Teachers of Dade picnic at Tropical Park. School Principal Maritza Jimenez, shown at right, joined Valle. Valle also won $5,000, the school district...