Building Kids, Building Community, Building a Legacy

We the WOBOTs: FIRST Robotics Team 141, from West Ottawa High School. The team consists of high school students, led by volunteer mentors with professional experience in a wide range of fields. Our mission is to teach students STEM principles and real-life skills through the lens of robotics competition and helping our community.

FIRST – For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology is a global nonprofit organization that prepares young people for the future through a suite of inclusive, team based robotics programs for ages 4 – 18 (PreK – 12). Over 668,000 students from 100+ countries participated in FIRST Robotics programs in 2022 – 2023.

Team 141 competes every year in the FIRST Robotics Competition, the flagship program. On the first Saturday in January, FIRST releases the rules and specifications for a brand new game. Teams have 8 weeks to design, build, program, and test a robot to compete in that game against other robots. WOBOT has competed in every season since we were founded in 1994, making us the oldest continuously-running teams in Michigan. In that time the team has won numerous awards and competed in the state and world championships multiple times.

In the off-season, we sharpen our skills, recruit new members, and volunteer at community events, including planting tulips for Holland’s Tulip Time festival, and serving breakfast at the annual Wings of Mercy 5k run fundraiser