Welcome to Team 540!
A letter from a current parent to our new parents:
Participating in the parent group of the Godwin Robotics Club has given me a new understanding of the importance of this program for my child's growth and development. When my son came to Godwin, he was excited about the robotics program. He is proud of being a "geek" and is looking forward to a career in the sciences. I thought that the club would be, simply that, a typical high school activity. What I found was a much more significant learning experience.

What I have realized is how rich and rewarding the FIRST Robotics program is for young people. As parents, we want our children to grow into mature adults who understand how to be involved in their larger community, to work together doing meaningful work, and to experience the joys and frustrations of developmental challenges. In other words, we want to help our young people become mature, well balanced human beings who can function well in the real world. The robotics program provides such opportunities.

Too often we parents try to protect our children from frustration and disappointment. Sadly, this can in many cases inhibit our children's maturation. In the past I have served as the president of the Campus Ministry Association at the University of Georgia. I have participated in many conversations with administrators, counselors and campus ministers who worry that many of our gifted young people arrive at college with the life skills to success. They are very bright and talented young people, but too often they lack the understanding of how to deal with frustration, disappointment and failure. They know how to success. Yet often in life our most important learning experiences come from our disappointments. Then we are faced with the choice to try again and try harder or we can give up.

Godwin FIRST Robotics is an excellent example of a program that allows our young people to learn from trial and error, to work collaboratively and to achieve self confidence and self esteem. Certainly they learn concrete problem solving skills and how to create and build a robot. While this is wonderful, as a parent I am most pleased with the focus on developing young people to be engaged, creative citizens of our community and ultimately of our nation and world. They are creating more than robots, they are creating the seeds for the future.

*New* 2009-2010 Parent's Packet has been updated and published. Please login to our website from the home page to download the packet.