Three teams of SeaPerch competitors from Gloucester Public Schools hope to ride a wave to generosity to the 2016 National SeaPerch Challenge this month at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge.
SeaPerch is a student competition involving underwater robots. The materials to be used are prescribed but students design their own bots. The competition requires students to maneuver their bots through an obstacle course and to show the robot’s agility in an orb challenge. Students are also challenged to create posters describing their design and engineering process.
Gloucester students have done well in the Tidewater regional SeaPerch competition, a qualifier for national event, in recent years but this year their performances were outstanding. Gloucester entered 10 middle and high school teams, and eight of them returned from the regional contest with trophies.
Two Page Middle School teams, the Aquanauts and Freestyle, placed first and second overall, respectively, among middle schools to earn national contest bids. Two Gloucester High School students, Payton Blodgett and Jeff Cho, competed as team Hokulea and placed second overall to also win a national bid.
The regional event was held April 16, and left the coaches of the winning teams with just 10 days to come up with $3,700 for registration and lodging. The school division was able to cover those costs but the teams were left on their own to come up with about $8,000 more to cover the travel costs for the 10 students and four teachers going to the national challenge on May 20.
A GoFundMe campaign has raised about $5,500, there are additional pledges of about $2,500 and the students have been conducting small fundraisers. With airfare prices increasing daily, the coaches hope to make their travel reservations next week. All three teams are still accepting donations, which can be made at GoFundMe or dropped off at GHS or Page.
“They are all so excited,” said Page coach Ruth Manifold. “The thing I’m most proud of is that our kids did this. They did this all themselves.”
“We’re really just gofers,” said Page coach Sherry Rollins. “We go for this and go for that. The kids tell us what they need, and we go get it, but they do the work and solve the problems.”
Nathan Steele, an eighth grader on the Aquanaut team, said his team’s robot was successful “because we designed it specifically for agility and performance.”
Nathan had participated in robotics in elementary school and at Peasley Middle School, but did not hear about SeaPerch until he came to Page this year. “I thought, oh cool, we can build our own submarines.”
Freestyle team member, Olivia Cohn, an eighth grader, said SeaPerch combines her interests in swimming and the robotics she has been pursuing since fourth grade. “Together as a team we worked really well. We had a lot of optimism, positivism and perfectionism, and we had a lot of practice,” she said of her team’s success.
Sixth grader and Freestyle member Brogan Hoback said getting involved with SeaPerch has interested him in other things, like VEX robotics and engineering in general. He now plans to pursue engineering at Virginia Tech.
“I was really good with a computer but when I got involved with wiring and soldering, it really pushed me over the edge,” said Brogan, who is looking forward to traveling with his teammates. “I’m very excited. It’s a trip of a lifetime for me.”
The students arrive at LSU for registration on May 20 and will stay and have their meals on campus. The coaches said it is a bonus that the trip will give them a taste of college life. The students and their robots compete on May 21 and return to Gloucester on May 22.