Spark is a weekend-long event at MIT where 7th and 8th graders come to MIT’s campus to take classes taught by MIT students! On Saturday, we had around 30 middle school students from around the country work in groups to build their own Sea Perches, remotely operated underwater vehicles, in the MIT Sea Grant. We began with a brief lecture on pressure, buoyancy, and Archimedes' principle, so they would understand the physics of how underwater vehicles work.

From there, we broke students off into groups of 3 to 4 and gave them a live demo of how to build and drive a Sea Perch, including cutting PVC, patching or drilling holes, and attaching the motors. After showing them some examples, the students began creating their own ROVs. We think the kids had a really good time, and we really enjoyed seeing all the creative designs they came up with, since they were different shapes and sizes we’ve never tried before!