Teachers Christopher Brooks and Thomas Douglas say they are proud of the members of the team and their dedication to performance and creativity during a particularly challenging robotics season.
“Team 5409 is beyond proud of every team member and mentor as they persevered throughout the season and even more so in provincials,” says Brooks. “Although we faced our ups and downs, at the end of the day we came together and showed our resilience as a team and conquered our challenges step-by-step. From starting qualification matches ranked in the 30s, then climbing up to third place at the end and being the second alliance captains for playoffs - it was a great accomplishment and gave the team tremendous satisfaction seeing all the hard work pay off.”
Says Douglas: “In the eight-year history of our school teams, we have never performed as well as we did this year at provincials. We are now working to further develop our skills and come back even stronger next year.”
Veronica Kleinsmith, Specialist High Skills Major & Pathways Lead for the Halton District School Board, says the performance of GWSS 5409 and the other HDSB teams including Burlington Central High School’s 2386 Trojans, Georgetown District High School’s 4976 Revolt Robotics and M.M. Robinson High School’s 2200 Rambotics, is inspiring for the Board.
“HDSB teams performed very well at the provincials this year. They had really tight timelines with a late start due to COVID-19 and still came out with some of the best robots in Ontario. This exemplifies true teamwork and innovation. FIRST Robotics is an inclusive, team-based robotics program so not only do students become immersed in STEM and build skills for the future but these competitions help students problem solve and be creative.”
