Sea Perch Kit

Project Description

Goal 1: Students will learn about the growing marine robotics industry, and the employment opportunities available to them here on the Cape. Activities: Students will bring speakers from the Marine Robotics industry to speak to the Sturgis Community. Students will plan visits ( both virtual and personal ) to companies and institutions that build or utilize marine robotics.

Goal 2: Students will learn to design, build, and maneuver a remotely operated vehicle in an underwater challenge course. Objective: Students will gain hands on building experience. Activities: Blue prints, soldering onto circuit boards, cutting PVC, waterproofing…

Goal 3: Students will compete in the Sea Perch regional competition hosted in New Bedford. Objective: Students will gain real world engineering experience while working with external deadlines and parameters. Activities: Robot building sessions, ROV maneuvering practice.

Goal 4: Students will modify the Sea Perch ROV so that it can collect water samples for water sampling in the Hyannis Harbor. Objective: Students investigate and design “”hacks”” to make the ROV immediately useful for data collection. Activities: Once the water samples are collected, the data will serve as real world modeling problems for the math classes at Sturgis.”

How will the project be evaluated (e.g. how will you gauge its success)

Goal 1 evaluation: I will document how many students were present to hear the speakers and to visit the marine robotics companies. I am aiming for at least 40 students to hear the presentations, and perhaps ten students to make the trip to a company.

Goal 2 evaluation: When the robot is built and the students can successfully maneuver it through a pool obstacle course, this goal will be met.

Goal 3 evaluation: When the students compete at the New Bedford competition, this goal will be met.

Goal 4 evaluation: When the data has been analyzed by the math students, this goal will have been met.

Benefit to the students and the school

The 6 members of the Sea Perch team will definitely benefit from the exposure to the field of marine robotics, the experience of building a robot from scratch, and the STEM skills needed to compete in the Sea Perch competition. In addition, the team will bring their knowledge to the Sturgis community, hopefully inspiring other students to pursue marine robotics in their future.

Timeline of Project (when will you do the project, if applicable)

• September: Students join club. ROV expert speaks to interested students during lunchtime (either virtually or in person)
• October: Students build the ROV November: Students practice maneuvering the ROV in local pools.
• December: Students compete in the Sea Perch Regionals in New Bedford. Second Semester: Students will modify the ROV to use it to collect water sampling data from the Hyannis Harbor. This data will be brought to Sturgis math classes for analysis.”