Middle School Students Design Underwater ROVs

This article was submitted by Swampscott Middle School STEM Teacher Adam Scharfenberger.

For the past four months, during Team Time at Swampscott Middle School, a group of eighth grade students could be found in the bowels of the middle school designing underwater ROV’s for the Sea Perch Final Challenge that took place at MIT on Thursday, May 3rd.

On a given afternoon at 1:52 pm, following the long basement corridor north, one would begin hearing voices echo out of a room ahead on the right.  Upon entering the room, one’s eyes are bombarded with learning in action. 

Students are hunched over an above ground pool in the back of the room testing their ROV designs.  At a workbench in front, a student is wiring and soldering a control panel for a motor.  Schematics and equations are tattooed across a whiteboard in marker.  PVC pipe and wires are scattered across the room. 

It is a scene from Monster Garage meets Jacques Cousteau meets Jules Verne.  And in this thunder of frenzied hands on learning stands Tom Butler – Tech Engineering teacher – as the eye of the storm of learning around him.  He helps students solve problems and encourages them to build upon and redesign from their mistakes and failures.

This year’s challenge mimicked the disaster caused by the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20, 2010 – a sunken rig and crude oil gushing out of a broken pipe deep below the water’s surface. 

At MIT’s Zesiger pool, a simulation of this event was set up for students.  The event had 4 phases:

Phase 1: Explosion and Surface Spill

Phase 2: Debris Removal and Drilling Rig Relocation

Phase 3: Inspecting Riser and Investigating

Phase 4: Repair Damaged Risers

Phase 5: Damage Assessment

Each school in the event had a task to accomplish.  Swampscott’s main goal was to construct ROVs that would remove debris and cut away this drilling rig.  This meant students had to design ROVs with a cutting device capable of cutting through PVC pipe. 

The students successfully achieved this goal and accomplished their task.  There was an 11th hour design for a means of capping the spill.  Attempts were made but due to time constraints never attained. 

This is the third year the middle school has participated in the Sea Perch event.  It is lead by science teacher Bill Andrake and tech engineering teacher Tom Butler