(From left) Tug, Kinsey and Marlie. The Fast and Furious team of Washington Island middle school students. Submitted.
Students from state’s smallest school show up big in Sea Perch Remote Operated Vehicle Competition
For the third year in a row, Wisconsin’s smallest school qualified a team for the international finals for design, development and maneuvering of a Remote Operated Vehicle (ROV).
The Washington Island Fast and Furious team was the top middle school team out of two from Wisconsin and finished 19th out of 71 teams from all over the world in the international Sea Perch finals. Washington Island teams finished 14th in the world in 2022 and 22nd in 2023.
The Washington Island team, including fifth-grader Marlie, sixth-grader Tug, and eighth-grade team captain Kinsey, had the best finish ever by a team from the island on one of the challenges. The group finished fifth in the world in the middle school “mission challenge,” in which the operators had to drive the remote-control underwater device they built and then had to pick up, carry and place items in specific locations.
The team finished 25th in the pool navigating an obstacle course and their technical design report was judged 43rd out of 71.
Kinsey participated on a Washington Island team the previous school year that did not advance to the state championships, but she learned from that experience.
Her team the previous year built an ROV with a triangular V-wing design that happened to have too much weight on one corner, making it difficult to pick up objects. The previous year, her team had an ROV with a hook designed to pick up some objects that had loops on them, but it was unable to pick up a Wiffle ball. Kinsey substituted the hook with a dowel rod, which was able to pick up all objects when she or a teammate manipulated the ROV correctly.
This year, Kinsey’s group built a “utility” ROV, “more of a box shape,” out of PVC pipe, elbows and T-shaped fittings. The new Fast and Furious team’s design had better balance than the one her team built the previous year, and also she and her teammates were able to create better buoyancy due to where they located pieces of pool noodles over the plastic-pipe frame.
Marlie, a fifth-grade student, was assigned as structural engineer, and helped to modify her team’s ROV and make it faster and more maneuverable by cutting the pipes and making the ROV smaller than it was when the team started design in the fall and competitions in winter.
The Sea Perch teams use a motherboard, solder and motors, some of which are provided in Sea Perch kits. Tug, a sixth-grade student, was in charge of the battery-powered motors and soldering to connect them to the motherboard.
Instructor and team leader Matt Sullivan said the Fast and Furious team successfully made the motor that propels the ROV downward in the water more powerful than the one used for rising, and the buoyancy from the pool noodles did most of the work when moving upward in the water column.
Sullivan said the event had an Underwater Exploration theme for the mission course, and two platforms at different levels with bubblers at the pool’s bottom to simulate sea vents. The mission course simulated a scenario where an ROV was retrieving items from the ocean floor and bringing them up and through a door to a research vessel near the water’s surface, Sullivan said.
Kinsey said she carried out all tasks properly except one during the challenge. When she manipulated the ROV to pick up a cup and then place it somewhat precariously over a peg, the bubbles knocked it off.
Sullivan said all of the students did a great job.
In addition to competing and mingling with students from around the world, the students took the train to the National Mall in Washington, DC, to see memorials and other sights.
Kinsey said she liked learning about soldering and building motors. She said both last year and with her team this year from October through May, she learned numerous skills that made her think of various new pathways she can pursue.
She also noted that her teammates have two or three more years to compete in the middle school division and to build upon what they’ve learned.
Editor’s note: For privacy reasons, Washington Island School does not release the last names of students.
