Tech Talks: Underwater Robotics

The Denver Zoo partnered with the Innovation Center Robotics Team to help design and build an aquatic ROV to assist biologists studying frogs in Lake Titicaca in Peru. The biologists there needed a device that could handle the water pressure at the bottom of the lake where the frogs live. As the IC Robotics Team continues to work on their project, they hosted a summer Super STEM class for middle school students. In this class they taught the students the fundamentals of designing and building an effective aquatic robot. Students worked in groups to design a robot and then built prototypes which they tested in a makeshift pool. They later took their finals designs to test in Union Reservoir. Students learned about how to deal with problems during designing and testing and how to work together to create the best possible product. The team was excited to teach and the students were excited to learn.

We talked to the student mentors about their work with the Denver Zoo and about teaching the class. We asked the middle school students about their goals for the project and what they learned from the experience. Here’s what they said.