retire scientists mark and joanne perra started the pilot programming last year. >> many of these kidsstuff that it takes, the right stuff, to succeed. >> now we have to do the chicken dance. >> reporter: the danville husband and wife wanted to strengthen "stem" education for low income children. >> they learn how to do something or get through it, say, math or programming or whatever, it's not something that can be taken away from them. >> whoa! >> reporter: mark and joanne helped launch the programming class at roosevelt with school and private funding. it's using an innovative curriculum developed at uc- davis that teaches logical thinking through coding and robotics. the perras themselves helped the instructor mentor students. >> we are in this to see kids succeed and to breed new success based on that. >> reporter: some students like jennifer shen felt confident enough to enter the annual robotics competition at uc- davis in may. >> i was really behind up. i was like, oh!! i want to do that! >> reporter: not only were they the first time from oakland to compete in the contest, but

retired scientists mark and joanne perra started the pilot project last year. >> many of these kids havehe stuff that it takes, the right stuff, to succeed. >> now we have to do the chicken dance. >> reporter: the danville husband and wife wanted to strengthen "stem" education for low income children. >> they learn how to do something or get through it, say, math or programming or whatever, it's not something that can be taken away from them. >> whoa! >> reporter: mark and joanne helped launch the program in class at roosevelt with school and private funding. it's using a curriculum developed at uc-davis that teaches logical thinking through coding and robotics. the pair themselves helped the instructor mentor students. >> we are in this to see kids succeed and to breathe new success based on that. >> reporter: some students like jennifer shen felt confident enough to enter the annual robotics competition at uc- davis in may. >> i was behind up, i want to do that. >> reporter: not only were they the first time in oakland to pete in the contest, but they took third place among 36 teams in