About Howdy Bots FIRST Robotics Team 6377

Through our Howdy Bots FRC team, students ages 13-18 design and build a robot during a 2 month intense Build Season, and compete against other teams in a game that is different each year. The team meets year-round and operates like a small business with different sub-team groups that handle everything from marketing and fundraising to programming, mechanics, and electrical work through an apprenticeship model. We believe that the most consequential learning that students do should be fun. As Dean Kamen has said, “We don’t use kids to build robots, we use robots to build kids.” The collaborative effort of building and competing with a robot provides that element of fun.

Students in the Howdy Bots program learn technical skills in mechanical and electrical work, CAD and computer programming, but they also learn 21st-century "soft” skills such as teamwork, communication, conflict resolution, leadership, respect, and integrity by working shoulder-to-shoulder with industry professionals. Meeting year round in the workshop garage of one of our coaches, Howdy Bots has attended FIRST competitions in Austin, Houston, El Paso, Del Rio, Dallas-area, and San Antonio.

Howdy Bots is unique in our area for being the only team who accepts anyone and everyone, regardless of ability or school affiliation. Our only restrictions are maturity, enthusiasm, and commitment. A student does not have to be enrolled in a particular school or club, be a boy or a girl, a particular race or ethnicity, have a lot of STEM knowledge or experience, or even have to have good grades or be considered by others to be a “good student.” None of those things matter to us. Any student who is excited to be at the shop and willing to work hard is welcomed with open arms to the Howdy Bots family.