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This is Part V in a series dedicated to National Charter Schools Week

Three days. 700 schools. A whole lot of head-to-head battles between custom-made robots.

In the end, it was students from CHAMPS Charter School of the Arts in Van Nuys, California who came out victorious in the VEX Robotics High School World Championship.

The SPUR-FLYS team members who hail from CHAMPS shared their win with high school students from Ontario, Canada and Auckland, New Zealand, meaning the SPUR-FLYS are literally world champions.

This is not the first championship for the SPUR-FLYS, a team name that combines the speed of their robot with ‘butterfly,’ who won the same title back in 2009 and are also back-to-back high school state champs.

The string of victories are needless to say derived from hard work and determination, but are bolstered by the charter school’s successful STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics) coursework model, which is essentially STEM’s more artistic cousin.

Being a charter school, CHAMPS educators have the autonomy to develop, exciting and versatile learning plans, giving students a plethora of course offerings and the ability to advance their education in ways that fit their needs and interests.

Outside of robotics, students boast impressive achievement numbers, surpassing statewide benchmarks and are graduating at higher rates. Consequently, U.S. News & World Report listed CHAMPS as one of the best high schools in the country, contributing to the solid showing of charter schools overall.