Robots.

For some people that word calls to mind C-3PO and R2-D2. For others, “Rosie,” the Jetsons’ household helper. And still others — maybe the old-timers among us — may recall “Gort” of 1951’s classic futuristic film “The Day the Earth Stood Still.”

For today’s students, however, robots aren’t human-shaped figures communicating via staccato locutions. Instead, they’re in-classroom tools that help develop the technology, engineering and math skills of a young generation of Americans.

A group of seven eighth-graders from St. Andrew the Apostle School in Clifton learned that firsthand as they worked together to build, program and test a Lego Mindstorm robot for use in a Nov. 19 First Lego League competition at George Mason University in Fairfax. The competition requires participants to complete 15 predetermined missions by using a robot created specifically for that purpose. St. Andrew’s “The Brickmeisters,” made up of five boys and two girls, will be graded on three components: teamwork, programming and knowledge of this year’s scientific emphasis: food contamination.

Vonda Brown, network engineer at St. Andrew, who is mentoring the students, said the goal of the competition is to help develop engineers for the future of the United States.

“This whole generation, everything they do will involve a robot” — including their future careers, Brown said. “In some way, shape or form, the job they’re going to have will deal with robots.”

The 15 missions must be accomplished by programming a robot to move around a “missions mat” provided by the First Lego League. For example, students must program the robot to bring “bacteria” (Lego-created) out of the “factory” and into “home base.” It must collect rats that may be contaminating food in warehouses. It must manipulate a thermometer to make it read the proper temperature of cooked meat.

Christian Geigel, 13, spent much of the time during last Friday’s after-school meeting walking back and forth from the missions mat to a computer, tweaking an angle or correcting the number of rotations of the robot’s wheels in order to correctly manipulate the machine. Once he typed in what he wanted the robot to do on the computer, he plugged it into a USB port and downloaded the information into the “brick,” or the software heart of the machine.

“I think it’s really neat that we can make robots do what we want to do,” Geigel said. “I think that can help me in the future.”

But successfully creating and programming robots is no easy task. The students must build the robot from scratch, figuring out which pieces to attach where to enable it to complete the missions.

“It’s not just looking at the website and (putting) this part here and this part here,” said Joe Neubauer, 13. “You actually have to brainstorm to figure out ways to do it.”

This involves repeated trial and error — and, as a result, repeated minor destruction of the robot and Lego mat.

But when something works, it’s a cause for celebration.

“You feel pretty accomplished when … everything works perfectly and comes together,” Neubauer said, pausing to look over his shoulder at his teammates who suddenly began cheering and clapping. “I think that just happened.”

By working with robotics, the students not only learn programming, and the practical application of math and algorithms, but also teamwork, Brown said.

“I really enjoy … trying as a group to communicate and find new ways to figure out a problem,” Neubauer said. “It’s a lot more fun than just sitting down and trying to do it yourself. You get to hear everybody’s ideas, and when you communicate, you also come up with a better idea.”

Embracing the scientific side of the project, Natalie Keener, 13, did most of the research for the food contamination of meat, vegetables and fruits. She studied everything from the harvesters’ dirty hands to rats in the warehouses to the use of unclean tools.

“It made us understand why we’re doing this,” Keener said.

Whether it’s through programming, building, measuring or researching, robotics gives students the opportunity to combine science, technology, engineering and math into one project, said Glenda Sigg, principal of St. Andrew. And it makes them think critically using a medium with which they are comfortable.

Technology “is how children relate to each other these days,” she said. “That’s how they learn best.”