SpringBoard

STEM Education Program

Super SeaPerch

The Super SeaPerch workshop is a three-day residential workshop for a select group of teachers who may each invite one student to attend. The workshop is an all-expense paid experience, with accommodations at the beautiful Shrine of St. Therese and lab explorations at the Ted Stevens Marine Research Institute located at Auke Bay NOAA headquarters.

This workshop assumes basic experience with construction and use of the SeaPerch. We will be focusing on use of sensors for investigating the underwater world and for developing semi-autonomous control of the SeaPerch. For example, one goal is for students build their own pressure sensor and feedback control loop allowing them to dial in a depth setting on their hand held controller and have their SeaPerch automatically dive to and maintain that depth on its own. We will be using underwater video cameras, wearable screen monitors, temperature sensors, hydrophones, still image cameras doing time lapse photography, computers, microcontrollers...and lots of interactive engineering design, to develop and drive some really cool ROV's. But the real goal is to show how much fun and engaging learning can be when students get to drive the design process. Some additional topics that blend engineering, art, and science into engaging hands on projects will also be covered.

This workshop promises to be the experience of a lifetime, not only for the teachers, but for their students as well as they work side-by-side amidst the stunning beauty of Auke Bay and Out-the-Road.

Surveys

Expense Report

UAS Credit:

Related Readings:

  • Build Your Own Underwater Robot and Other Wet Projects, (1997) Harry Bohm and Vicki Jensen
  • Abandon Ship! : The Saga of the U.S.S. Indianapolis, the Navy’s Greatest Sea Disaster, (2002) Richard F. Newcomb
  • The Silent World, (2004) Jacques Ives Cousteau, National Geographic Adventure Classics
  • U.S. Navy Ships and Coast Guard Cutters, (1990) M.D. Van Orden
  • Before the Wind: The Memoir of an American Sea Captain, (2000) Charles Tyng

Web-based Resources

All Things SeaPerch

SeaPerch and ROVs in the News