Workshop creates teaching tools that sink and swimUnderwater robots have been used to discover ancient shipwrecks, to explore the Titanic, to recover sunken treasure—and to get a group of Rhode Island middle school students to write in their classroom journals. Six Rhode Island teachers were awarded Sea Grant scholarships to travel to the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) this past summer for a five-day workshop to learn about underwater robotics. Working with MIT ocean engineers, the teachers each built a remotely operated vehicle (ROV), which they were later able to take home for use in their classrooms. ROVs are unoccupied, underwater robots operated by a person on board a ship and tethered to the ship by cables that carry electrical signals back and forth between the operator and the ROV. ROVs are equipped with instrumentation ranging from video cameras to water samplers to automated arms that can retrieve items from great depths. Beverly O’Keefe, former Rhode Island Sea Grant program coordinator, who led Rhode Island Sea Grant’s participation in the “Sea Perch” workshop, says that each teacher had made modifications to the original ROV design: “One teacher had added an underwater camera and TV system for direct viewing. Another teacher added a watertight bilge for increased propulsion.” John Langella, East Providence Senior High School biology, oceanography, and marine technology teacher, is looking for ways to have his students build similar ROVs. Though he considers them inexpensive, costing less than $50 each to make, he nevertheless will need funding for the project. While building the ROV is an interactive way for students to learn, he says that “ROVs are just carriers for equipment,” and that it is the scientific work that ROVs help to accomplish that’s most important. The URI Office of Marine Programs (OMP) partnered with Rhode Island Sea Grant and MIT Sea Grant in offering the opportunity and will be working with the teachers who participated in this, the first year of the program, to “iron out the wrinkles,” says Gail Scowcroft, OMP associate director. One suggestion the teachers had, says Scowcroft, is to involve teachers directly in planning future workshops. In the meantime, she says, this year’s group will “serve as mentors for other teachers in the state.” Joyce Doblmeier, who teaches math and science at the Rhode Island School for the Deaf, says she enjoyed the opportunity to work with MIT scientists and is working with school administrators on plans for building the ROV. The experience has been helpful in other ways as well. “Last week I assigned writing in a daily science journal to my middle school students, and they said that journaling was only for English class. So I was able to tell them that scientists at MIT write in daily journals as they experiment,” Doblmeier says. —Monica Allard Cox Related Links:
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