ROV Competition Teaches Marine Science and Underwater Technology to Educators and High School Students

Focus on developing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) skills has gained nationwide attention in K-12 education. The purpose is to excite and prepare students for majors and careers as scientists, technologists, engineers and mathematicians in order to meet the growing demands of the 21st century.  As part of Deep-C’s commitment to increasing the number of future STEM professionals, the Consortium sponsors an annual teacher workshop and student competition.

DISL instructor Carrie Dixon-Riley explains in the intricacies of wiring ROV motors to workshop participants. (Photo credit:  Tina Miller-Way, DISL)

Aimed at exciting teachers and students about the possibilities of STEM education, the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL) hosts teachers from the Florida panhandle for an annual marine science and underwater technology workshop. Interested high school educators who teach environmental science, marine science, physics, engineering, or physical science can apply to participate in the workshop and competition on the DISL website.  Two teachers per school are required, and they must have administrative support for the team component to be eligible for participation.

If selected, the teachers spend four days learning about Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) construction and activities that they can implement in the classroom to enhance students understanding of buoyancy, basic engineering principles, basic circuitry and deep sea oceanography.  DISL designed the workshop to provide educators with an engaging and fun way to teach marine science and underwater technology in their classrooms. (Read about last summer's teacher training workshop).

The summer workshop is the first in a series of related activities that the teachers and their students participate in over the school year and beyond. They leave the workshop and return to their schools with building supplies and a mission — assemble a team of enthusiastic students who can take on the challenge of building their own ROV for a student competition the following spring.

The Annual ROV Competition

Months of preparation culminate in an ROV competition where student teams test their creations and themselves.

"Mission Control" a.k.a. the DISL Pool (Photo credit: Amelia Vaughan, Deep-C)

The pool at DISL is transformed into "Mission Control" as each student team completes a series of tasks ranging from successfully navigating through a hoop to identifying several marine species.  Competitors participate in two rounds of missions followed by team presentations where they share their design process and what they learned.  A panel of judges observes the missions and presentations.  Then the judges interview the teams, ask questions about how their ROV was constructed,  adjustments or improvements made between missions, and any lessons learned. 

In addition to the technical skills that are developed over the course of this competition, students also learn a little bit about themselves through the process.

The weekend consists of more than just competition, however, as the students and teachers are also able to visit the DISL Estuarium, deploy a professional ROV in the Gulf of Mexico, and learn about how ROVs are used in the field with a presentation by scientitsts who use ROVs in their research. (Read about last summer's competition.)

According to Tina Miller-Way, chair of DISL's Discovery Hall Programs which created and oversees the annual Deep-C ROV competition, students who participate demonstrate increased understanding of circuitry; concepts of hydrodynamics and buoyancy; the use of ROVs in marine research, industry and exploration; possible careers in these fields and an appreciation of effective teamwork. And if that wasn’t enough, students, teachers and the DISL staff have a great time hosting the competition!

More Information about the ROV workshops and Competition

• See highlights from the 2013 ROV Competition
• See highlights from the 2013 teacher workshop
• See highlights from the 2012 teacher workshop
• Apply to participate in the next ROV teacher workshop
• 2014 ROV Competition Fact Sheet (PDF)

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The Deep-C (Deep Sea to Coast Connectivity in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico) Consortium is a long-term, interdisciplinary study of deep sea to coast connectivity in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico. The study is investigating the environmental consequences of petroleum hydrocarbon release in the deep Gulf on living marine resources and ecosystem health. Deep-C research is made possible by a grant from BP/The Gulf of Mexico Research Initiative.

Tina Miller-Way

Dr. Tina Miller-Way is Chair of Discovery Hall Programs for Education and Outreach at the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL). The lab, located in southern Mobile County off Alabama's Gulf Coast, is well-known for their excellence in education and outreach programming. As a marine laboratory, DISL's mission encompasses marine science education, marine science research, coastal zone management policy and educating the general public through the Estuarium, Dauphin Island Sea Lab's public aquarium. The lab partners with more than 20 colleges and with primary schools to offer marine science coursework up to the graduate level. The research programs of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab range from biogeochemistry and oceanography to systems ecology. Most research focuses on the near-shore and estuarine processes of Mobile Bay, field sites of our internationally-renowned faculty include Mexico, Australia, and Croatia and other countries.