Story by Marcy Shortuse Photos by Marcy Shortuse & Christine Cunningham Taking curiosity and experimentation to the extreme is what the STEM program is all about, and this year’s experiment for kids at The Island School (TIS) proved to be no exception. The TIS STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) team, consisting of third, fourth and fifth grade students, has been hard at work in the last few months building their own remotely-operated vehicle to use underwater. It’s a drone the students created under the tutelage of teacher J.T. Tremaine, who has the same boyish enthusiasm for the project the kids do. At times it appeared he found it hard to relinquish the controls to let the kids give it a try. When asked if it was easier to operate an underwater drone than an aerial one, his response was a lot of head shaking and muttering. The OpenROV the children built streams video 30 GASPARILLA ISLAND May/June 2017 to a laptop from under the water, by means of a two-wire tether. The ROV can glide across the top of the water, or go underneath and scout out the bottom. Then the video footage is taken back to the classroom and analyzed. “We completed the initial build of the kit just before summer last year and had a functioning and operational vehicle before school let out last year,” Tremaine said. “All the kids had a hand in building various parts of the vehicle.” Recently a small group of the children had a chance to try the ROV out at Whidden’s Marina and again at another local boathouse. The project went well, Tremaine said, so keep an eye out for some future video footage on the Boca Beacon Facebook page. G M
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