Adding ROVs to the curriculum

In 2008 and 2009 I was helping out then varsity soccer coach Josh Nichols.  Josh is also an elementary school teacher in our district.  I had been working with Josh's students using Lego Mindstorms and his students were really enjoying it.  On the sidelines we began talking about a project that Josh had seen at a recent MACUL Conference.  (MACUL stands for Michigan Association for Computer Users in Learning.)  The project involved underwater remotely operated vehicles or ROVs.  Josh explained that a teacher in Muskegon was using them with his elementary class and he had seen this teachers presentation and wanted to try it here in Stockbridge.  He asked if my students could help build the controllers.  I said yes and my high school students began building them in the spring of 2009.

Not only did my students build the controllers they started stopping over to Josh's classroom at Heritage Elementary School.  They started helping his students with their ROV project by offering advice and modifying controllers as needed.  My high school students were really getting into the ROV project.

In 2010 I decided to have my high school students build an ROV.  We jumped into ROVs by entering the 2010 Great Lakes Regional ROV competition in Alpena, Michigan.  This regional is part of the MATE International ROV Competition program.  We were really new at this and didn't know what to expect.  The team was made up of four senior boys.  They worked from the beginning of February until the regional competition at the end of April.  Their hard work payed off with a first place finish and a chance to travel to Hawaii and to compete in the MATE International ROV Competition.



The Stockbridge High School Robotics Team competed in the 2010 MATE International ROV Competition June 24-26, at the University of Hawaii-Hilo. The Stockbridge team finished 24th out of 34 teams from around the world competing in the International competition. The competition began in November of 2009 with over 450 teams entering the competition. The 34 teams that competed in Hilo, Hawaii had all qualified for the competition at one of 19 regional competition held around the United States, Canada, Scotland and in Hong Kong.


While in Hawaii team members Cody Allred, Brandon Mason, Zach Olson, and JD Summers were able to visit many of the local attractions. While on the Island of Hawaii the team was able to visit Volcanoes National Park and then travel to the Keck Observatory on the Mauna Kea volcano. While on the island of Oahu the team toured Pearl Harbor and the USS Arizona memorial along with the USS Missouri and the Aviation Museum of the Pacific. The team was also able to visit the University of Hawaii’s Undersea Research Lab and see the Pieces IV deep sea submersible. The Universities research team also showed us their ROV’s used to map the sea floor and perform other underwater research missions. Team members were also able to travel below the Pacific Ocean and view the coral and man made reefs along Waikiki Beach aboard the Atlantis Submarine.


With the help of community members and businesses the team raised approximately $8,000 in less than eight weeks to travel to Hawaii.

The 2010 Robotics Team with Diamond Head in the background.