Students in the Bagdad Elementary School robotics club use math fundamentals to build and program a small Lego robot and then showcase the device's abilities during competition.

The club is facilitated by volunteers such as Austin ISD high school senior Salesh Kumar. After becoming interested in robotics in the fourth grade, Kumar said he wanted to pass down his passion to a young generation of learners.

"If you can take that drive and excitement and channel it into robotics or math, these kids are your future engineers," he said.

One of the biggest obstacles to sustaining extracurricular organizations is a lack of volunteers, said Alejandro Grana, fellow Bagdad Elementary robotics club coach. He said schools should rely on one another for the volunteer support needed to spark an early interest in learning.

"We'd like to see the district let the older children from high school, especially within the same ISD, have the opportunity to come and tutor the younger grades in [science, technology, engineering and mathematics], robotics or whatever they can as part of community service," he said. "In my opinion, it is far more valuable than sending children to clean up a stadium or a park."

More than 400 Bagdad Elementary School students participate in some type of after-school club or enrichment class, Principal Cathy White said, and volunteers are needed.

"We want to get them connected in different clubs at the elementary level so they're hooked in the long run," she said. "A district initiative that we have is to close the achievement gap between economically disadvantaged and non–economically disadvantaged students, and part of that is looking at after-school enrichment activities and camps."