2011-Can We Do It Again?

After our success in 2010 at both the Great Lakes Regional ROV competition in Alpena, Michigan and at the MATE International ROV competition in Hilo, Hawaii, I was hooked.  Though I think many in the school and community thought it was a once in a life time opportunity.  After returning from Hawaii I was more excited than ever to be a teacher.  The whole ROV competition changed the way I thought about teaching.  I spent time that summer researching ROVs, STEM and Project Based Learning or PBL.

The 2011 team getting ready for the Great Lakes Regional

In the spring of 2011, I once again offered an Advanced Robotics class.  This time the class was solely focused on ROVs and the MATE Competition.  The class had eight students in it and do to scheduling guidelines and restrictions was scheduled concurrently with my basic vex robotics class.  While not ideal, it worked, just as it had the year before.

The Advanced Robotics class was run differently than a traditional class.  While I created a syllabus for the class.  The syllabus really became the mission guidance for the class, providing basic structure, goals and an outline on grading.  I specified that the goal of the class was to design, build and operate and ROV in the Great Lakes Regional ROV Competition on April 30, 2011.  Students would be graded on four assignments.  The ROV mission, the poster presentation, the oral engineering presentation and a 20 page technical paper.  Students were given a copy of the MATE Competition guidelines, mission specifications and scoring sheets.  This project would provide the curriculum for the class centered around the four required components of the competition (The ROV Mission, the oral engineering presentation, the poster presentation and the technical paper.)

The 2011 competition scenario was based upon the 2010 Deep Water Horizons oil well spill and capping the oil well.  The ROV would need to be able to cap the simulated well and close a valve underwater to stop the flow of simulated oil.  The students began the first day of class by brain storming ways for the ROV to complete the underwater missions.

In the brainstorming session the team broke down the MATE Competitions underwater missions into the individual tasks.  They then assigned team members to research possible ways to complete each task.  They then recorded theses for the entire team to see.  The next step would be to formulate a plan of action.

K.I.S.S.

K.I.S.S. or Keep It Simple Stockbridge

K.I.S.S. became the watch word for the Stockbridge ROV Teams.  It stands for Keep, It, Simple, Stockbridge.  Often the simplest method is the best method to use when solving these problems.  To much time and effort can be spent over engineering a solution if you are not careful.

The Build

After coming up with a plan the team divided up the work.  One group of students built the mission props so we could practice the missions on the bench and when we went to the pool.  The other team members were divided up to make the frame or structure of the ROV, another group built the manipulator or gripper, another group make the spinner used to close the valve and the last group worked on the tether, cameras and electrical system.  More on the build in our next post.....