Wired for learning

Corey Belaief was clearly the only real engineer in the group.

The Plymouth North High School junior had his underwater robot practically pirouetting in a garbage can full of water, which was more than other participants at the recent build-your-own robot workshop could say. Five feet away, Marshfield High School biology teacher Jim Merritt's robot -- a mass of pipes, motors, and an empty Coke bottle for buoyancy -- was stubbornly refusing to do much of anything.

No matter. What the session lacked in engineering achievement it made up for in learning. In fact, that was the point of the workshop, sponsored by the Stellwagen Bank National Marine Sanctuary. Remotely operated vehicles -- or ROVs, as they are known in the business -- were just a means to that end.

''It's not that we hope to build a new kind of ROV here that the sanctuary can one day use," said sanctuary instructor Anne Smrcina. ''We hope to be building a new generation of inspired underwater engineering students that we can use one day."

A case in point was Belaief's classmate and collaborator, Kevin Arruda. He now knows what he wants to be when he grows up.

''This is more realistic than just building a LEGO robot," he said. ''This gives you an idea what it's really going to be like being an engineer when you get out of college."

The learning extended from students to their teachers -- among them Plymouth North science teacher Michael Bastoni, who helped lead the workshop. They came hoping to add a new dimension to their teaching of science, biology, ecology, and even shop classes. ''The real story," Bastoni said, ''is they are learning a new educational paradigm. . . . What you're looking at here is very active learning."

About 10 hours' worth. The workshop started at 8:30 a.m. at the academy's electronics lab in Buzzards Bay on Cape Cod. For $25, the teachers -- many from the South Shore but some from as far away as New York -- could dip as deeply as they wanted into piles of white PVC plumbing parts, tiny electric motors, propellers, wires and Styrofoam insulation. Then, using electric drills, oscilloscopes, soldering irons, rubber bands and nylon wire ties, they turned their pieces into working robots. At least, that was the idea.

By 6 p.m., they had to produce something, anything, that could retrieve items at the bottom of the academy's pool by means of remote control.

This exercise in ingenuity was interrupted only occasionally by instruction from Smrcina, who talked about the program in general, and Bastoni, who discussed what the teachers can eventually do with it.

By 4:30 p.m., it was off to the pool to test the ROVs. One-by-one, they were gingerly launched from the pool's edge, tethered to remote controls by thin gray wires soldered in place hours earlier.

Electric motors apparently work fine underwater, provided they are properly dried off afterward. The same could not be said for all the ROVs.

Merritt had ironed out some lingering ''stability issues," producing a slick-looking final product that -- despite its impressive looks -- was nonetheless a little reluctant to descend.

Many other ROVs descended just fine, only to turn into unruly runaways once they hit the pool floor. A large pole with a hook was used to retrieve them.

The entire workshop crew craned over the pool's edge, some verbally urging their ROVs to perform tasks they couldn't seem to convey by remote control.

All except for the team from the Diman Regional Vocational Technical School in Fall River. The impressive ROV they assembled was the size and shape of a microwave oven with six propellers that snapped it to attention at the flick of the remote controls. Diman electronics teacher Ken Rapoza expected nothing less.

''What do you want? We're electronics and machine shop people," he said. ''We love this stuff."

Indeed, the event underscores Massachusetts' emerging stature in the world of underwater robotic competition.

The ROV workshops started in 2002 in Southern California, and Massachusetts since has had two regional winners, suggesting the Bay State is a great place to teach underwater robotics, Smrcina said.

''It's nice to see there is this interest and capability in the area," she said. ''We'd like to see it expand."

So would the teachers from Marshfield and Plymouth who attended. Such a program also can work wonders for a class curriculum, Merritt said. He has big plans for his ROV and the students he hopes to teach to build others like it.

Bastoni, the teacher from Plymouth North, explained to other educators how they could start such programs at their schools.

And if a school doesn't have a swimming pool to test the machines the students eventually build, he said, there is always a hotel swimming pool nearby.