Alpena Public Schools, Alcona Community Schools students have an Underwater Innovative Vehicle Design Competition
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ALPENA -- Students from Alpena Public Schools and Alcona Community Schools put their problem-solving skills to the test as they competed against each other in the Underwater Innovative Vehicle Design Competition on Wednesday.
Hosted by Square One Education Network, a Michigan-based non-profit educational organization, the competition was held in Plaza Pool at Alpena High School and saw 26 teams representing students from Alpena High School, Thunder Bay Middle School, Alcona High School, and Alcona Middle School. For the competition, students competed in three different underwater missions, which required the innovative use of a remotely operated vehicle that they had three months to make beforehand.
According to Barb Land, the executive director of the Square One Education Network, in addition to completing the missions, teams competed for trophies related to various aspects of the competition such as the design or engineering of their ROV, their ambassadorship in being able to inspire interest in robotics for younger students, their presentation during the competition, and their ability to pitch their ROV design.
"We are going to be giving out first and second place in probably five or six different categories," Land said. "The students will compete in performance. They will compete in ambassadorship -- they were all required to do some outreach in the community with younger students where they could share their learning. They're competing in craftsmanship in their design and innovation. They're also invited to do their one-minute elevator pitch."
The APS ROV coach Bob Thomson said that he is ultimately very proud of the performance of the various APS teams. Additionally, he believes the competition was good practice for the high school team that has their Great Lakes Regional event coming on May 11.
"High school did really well," Thomson said. "They've got the regional event coming up in two months, so this is a nice warm-up to them to get the team going and put together. For the junior high team, this was their first event and they also did really well. We had all the robots working just fine. And they were super excited. Things went well for them. So yeah, it was overall a great performance by everybody."
The ACS ROV coach Elizabeth Thomson also said that she was proud of her team's performance, not just the ones who were able to grab awards, but the ones who were able to push on despite running into technical issues.
"A lot of kids have brakes and electrical problems," Thomson said. "But everybody walked away with a working robot and then fixed it throughout the day, and I couldn't be more proud of them. They did really well."
According to Alcona Community School Superintendent Dan O'Connor, who acted as a judge for several events, the most important thing that the competition provided students with was overcoming hardships and making adjustments when necessary, which is a skill that he believes will be beneficial regardless of the career the kids ultimately go into.
"Some of the students would pull the ROV out in the middle of their time competition, fix some things, tweak some things and that's just life," O'Connor said. "It's what it's all about, trying to develop that other set of skills. While they all may not be underwater ROV experts later in life, this will develop some different skills for them that will translate to anything and that's the biggest thing."