Bolt was the smallest robot in the school lab, and the saddest.
Every morning he tried to follow the black line on the floor. Every morning he rolled the wrong way and bumped into the cupboard. Thud. The older students laughed. The lab teacher sighed. The box of parts beside him gathered dust.
Only Meena, twelve years old, didn't give up on him.
One night, long after everyone had gone home, she found something online: a set of free lessons. Step by step, they explained how to make a robot see a line, turn, and stop. At the end of each lesson was a challenge, as if someone was cheering her on.
Lesson one: Bolt wobbled… and turned. Lesson two: Bolt followed the line halfway. Lesson five: Bolt went all the way round, without a single thud.
Meena stared at the screen. Who wrote these? A professor? A big company? She scrolled to the bottom of the page, looking for the name of the great teacher who had helped her.
The lessons were made by two kids.
Two brothers, Sanjay and Arvind Seshan, built robots. When they couldn't find good lessons for programming them, they wrote their own and shared them online.
Those lessons reached more than 220,000 users in 175 countries. And the boys who kept teaching others went on to become FIRST LEGO League World Champions.
Somewhere tonight, another Bolt is bumping into a cupboard. Another Meena is about to give up. And the help she needs might come from someone her own age, in your school, your village, your club. Maybe you.
Story inspired by the real Seshan brothers. Bolt and Meena are fictional. Facts from TIME for Kids and TribLive.