Mother of Providence SeaPerch Team Place 1st in Naval Competition

Mother of Providence Regional Catholic School (MPRCS) SeaPerch Team competed against 24 other middle schools in the Greater Philadelphia SeaPerch Challenge at Temple University on March 8th, 2019, placing 1st in the Design Notebook category and 6th in the Presentation category. The team met weekly after school from October through March to design, build, and test their remotely-operated underwater vehicle so they could compete in this annual event organized by the Philadelphia Naval Surface Warfare Center and Temple University’s College of Science and Technology.

This unique program works in collaboration with the Office of Naval Research and is managed by the AUVSI Foundation through Temple University. SeaPerch is an underwater robotics program in which students design and build an underwater Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV). The students then compete in the Greater Philadelphia SeaPerch Challenge. Throughout the SeaPerch project, students have fun learning about robotics, engineering concepts, problem solving, design skills, teamwork, tool safety and technical procedures.

8th Grader, Ann Marie Smith says "I enjoy SeaPerch because of all the students, the determined adults that guide us and learning to build something that will help the Navy. I have learned how to solder, work as a team, write professionally, and how to make precise measurements to make things work."

The Design Notebook part of the competition is where the team must write and explain the entire process involved in creating their ROVs and tests the students’ organizational and documentation capabilities.

The presentation aspect of the competition consist of a 10 minute presentation for The SeaPerch committee. This is an integral part of the competition where the team must “sell” their vehicle to the committee. All student members of the presentation must be prepared to answer any questions about the process of creating their vehicle.

The competition itself consists of Middle School teams throughout Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware completing various obstacles and tasks that demonstrate the ROVs maneuvering and retrieving capabilities.

Sixth Grader Shannon McGee shared "SeaPerch is a blast! I get to hang out with friends and learn a lot. I learned scientific things such as buoyancy, but I also learned time management, how to be a leader and how to be part of a group. These are some of the great things middle schoolers are learning from SeaPerch."

We congratulate all of the SeaPerch Team members for a job well done!