Snyder Middle School Students Advance To National Engineering Competition

Students from Snyder Middle School on Friday attended the Greater Philadelphia SeaPerch Challenge — a competition that tests the students’ knowledge of physics and engineering. More than 30 different schools from all over the Greater Philadelphia area attended the challenge.

The local team came away with three trophies: 3rd place in Spirit (teamwork), 1st place in pool performance, and the championship trophy, winning the overall contract and securing their place at the SeaPerch National Competition held at Georgia Tech in Atlanta in May.

According to the district, local students spent almost three months learning about hydrodynamics, vectors, motors, circuits and electricity and designed a ROV (remotely operated vehicle) to complete both a five-ring obstacle course and an underwater oil pipeline repair mission.

The team also had to maintain a detailed engineer’s notebook, detailing all the physics and engineering principles that they learned and how they were applied to the design of their SeaPerch ROV, the district said.

The Snyder Mission Driving Team comprised of Max Palamarchuk and Ryleigh Davis was the only one able to complete the pipeline repair, the district said.