School holidays are usually a time for relaxation, but one group of teenagers spent their holidays in the company of young engineers and a few carefully crafted robots.

The annual VEX World Robotics Competition was held in the Kentucky Exposition Centre in Louisville USA and House of Science, shone through.

The House of Science team at the annual robotics competition.

The competition is divided into five categories; Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Math, with House of Science entered into the Math division.

A total of 37 countries participated in the competition and, even though House of Science will be returning without a trophy, they will be returning with something to be proud of.

The team consists of Dean Strydom, Sam Gilles-Smith, Callum McLeod and Kate Low and at the end of the first day of their competition, the team were second overall in the Math division after a well fought win in their very first qualifying match and another two victories in the following qualifiers.

Day two saw a few losses but couldn't knock the New Zealand team out of the top 15.

However, day three saw the team experiencing some technical difficulties and some emergency engineering to their main robot, which resulted in their elimination from the competition.

House of Science is supported by the Wright Family Foundation and is dedicated to furthering science education within local communities, offering courses and programmes for students and teachers.

House of Science director Chris Duggan is incredibly impressed with the young team and their dedication and thinks the experience will help the four in the future.

'We're really proud of the House of Science robotics team and their efforts at the World Champs.

"The students all behaved impeccably throughout the challenges and experience gained will be a great asset in future years.”

This is the second year that the House of Science team has been a fixture at the world competition, and Chris says having team members with that experience on their side certainly helped 8757 feel confident heading into the competition.

The team will be heading home to New Zealand this week, just in time to return to school when holidays end on May 2.