Innovative STEM Education with Remotely Operated Vehicles

Arizona Project WET (APW) collaborated with Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) to immerse 20 teachers from across Arizona in the first Underwater Robotics and Engineering Design Academy sponsored by Arizona Department of Water Resources. One might wonder about the intersection of underwater robots with the desert that we live in, but teachers soon discovered that Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) are used throughout the water management industry. During the academy, hosted within UA's Engineering College facilities, teachers designed and built ROVs to accomplish tasks similar to those performed by ROVs on the Central Arizona Project canal. Teachers left the workshop with an understanding of buoyancy, hydrodynamics, forces, energy, electrical circuitry, wiring, soldering, control systems, lessons, tools, and the confidence to teach the engineering design of ROVs with their students. Plans are underway to provide a Spring competition for their students to demonstrate their own ROVs.

 

Cooperative Extension Article