TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (WTXL) - Making sure that students are interested in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) is a goal parents, teachers and school administrators can easily get behind. But what happens when the students decide to take that learning into their own hands?
A group of Middle School and High School students across Leon County are getting hands-on STEM experience; with minimal teacher involvement. The Underwater Robotics Competition is an event started by the Octo-Pi-Rates robotics team, where students from different schools design and build a robot to compete against the robots of their peers.
This year, there are students from five schools participating including, STARS Middle School, Woodville Middle, SAIL High School, Godby, and Rickards; there is also a team of home-school students competing.
All of the robots entered into the competition are waterproof and operate remotely; meaning that the students must navigate the robot using a water-proof video camera attached to the robot. Once the robot is in the water, the students must complete a task while navigating though various obstacles. They are only allowed to use the information sent to a computer from the robot to navigate.
The students have had two months to build these devices with High School students mentoring the Middle School teams. All of the students had minimal teacher assistance throughout the process.
The competition takes place Saturday, December 6 from 9am until 2pm. The winners will get to take their robot to a multi-state competition in April, 2015.
If you would like to see the competition yourself, the event is open to the public and takes place at Morcom Aquatic Center, 2550 Pottsdamer Street, Tallahassee.
To learn more about the Octo-Pi-Rates robotics program and the upcoming competition, you can visit octopirates.com.
