This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Community Corner

Students To Compete in Regional Underwater Robotics Competition

Home schooled students from the area have teamed up for a robotics challenge.

11-year-old Ocean City resident Solomon Griffith and his teammates from the Cape May County 4-H Cyber Explorers club needed to test the underwater robots they built for this year's regional SeaPerch competition at Drexel, so they spent Saturday evening at the , making sure their robots were not too buoyant or too heavy.

"4-H has taught me a lot of things," said Griffith. "Mostly to persevere."

Last year, Griffith and his teammates, Luke Karavan, 11, of Linwood, Gabe Marrero, 12, and sister Isabel, 10, of Mays Landing, travelled to observe the national Sea Perch competition at Drexel, but this year they have entered. All of the students on the team are home schooled and will be competing in the middle school division, which will include teams from public and private schools throughout the region.

Find out what's happening in Ocean Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Julie Karavan, Luke's mother, has helped the children since the beginning. First, she secured a grant for their robotics kits, which were designed at MIT, then she, along with the parents of the other children, watched and supported as each child built their robot step-by-step.

For many teams, which can include many children working on one robot, a child will work on one step of the process, then pass the robot along to another child to work on the next step in an assembly line-like process. But for the Cyber Explorers, each child was able to build their own robot, so they learned how to do it from beginning to end, including soldering, fitting PVC pipes, and testing their creations. 

Find out what's happening in Ocean Citywith free, real-time updates from Patch.

They will only be able to submit the best robot, though, and the team will also have to submit a 20 page design notebook, provide a 10 minute presentation about their work, and develop an identity as a business that plans to sell their design to the United States Navy. The students will be learning engineering, honing their writing and public speaking skills, and thinking like marketing agents all in one competition.

Sharon Griffith, Solomon's mother, said she thinks her son is learning valuable lessons from the project, especially engineering skills.

"He is learning you succeed when you fail," she said. "And it's all collaborative...they [the students] try to come to a consensus."

After testing each of their robots on Saturday, they found that some were too buoyant, and others were too heavy. But when they adjusted the weight of each, they started seeing success, and robots could be seen zipping around beneath the surface of the pool.

On March 24, the team will compete at Drexel for the Greater Philadelphia Sea Perch Challenge, where their robot will have to maneuver an obstacle course and simulate and underwater salvage mission.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?