KANE'OHE — John Rand stands on a rock directing his tethered remote-operated vehicle to the bottom of Waikalua Loko Fishpond and back up again.

The Kapi'olani Community College engineering professor is having fun with the ROV that he built and what he now considers to be a valuable teaching tool. He plans to incorporate building ROVs into KCC's first "summer bridge program" for high school juniors and recent graduates making the transition to college.

MIT research engineer Victor Polidoro helped teach educators how to build inexpensive underwater ROVs.

"We try to convey that it's a great starter project to get kids interested in engineering and science," Polidoro said of the MIT effort that has been under way for three years and is well received in several East Coast and Great Lakes states.

MATH, SCIENCE AND MORE

The underwater ROV-building project provides opportunities to teach engineering, math and physics during the construction process. Deployment could prompt lessons in biology and oceanography. Writing skills and analytical thinking come into play in the data analysis and reporting phase.

"This hands-on project encourages students to explore the wide range of opportunities that are available in these fields," said Darren Okimoto of the University of Hawai'i Sea Grant College Program.

The workshop at Windward Community College taught educators how to build a basic battery-powered ROV — 12 inches long and 7 inches high, with two small floats using plastic pipes.

"You can get everything at a hardware and electronic stores," said Maggie Loftus, an MIT assistant to the education coordinator. "It costs about $50 to make a robot."

Plankton nets, underwater video cameras, hydrophones and water-monitoring devices can be mounted onto the underwater vehicles.

What makes the project attractive for students in middle school and above is that it's fun to do.

"We have kids that ditch school or have no interest in learning who, once they play with a robot ... we see they relate to it," said Cliff Jenkins, a Waipahu High science teacher, whose school is one of 12 statewide involved in the Hawai'i underwater robotic challenge program.

A BIT LIKE VIDEO GAMES

"I would describe the potential of this type program in schools as unbelievable," he said, noting that students enjoy building the robots and operating them, partly because the controls are similar to video games.

Most of the schools that have established underwater robotic programs are into more advanced vehicles.

David Izumi, an engineering teacher, started the underwater robotic program at Kailua High School this year. Kailua High finished second to Waiakea High in state and regional competition and will represent Hawai'i in national and international competition in June at Houston's Johnson Space Center.

In the upcoming competition, Izumi said, Kailua's underwater robot will be navigated through a pool the size of a football field and 40 feet deep to locate a target, open a door, complete a specific task inside and then unhook an antenna from the object.

Izumi is a believer in the benefits of underwater robotics programs at schools.

"I've had four former students who went on to major in engineering and three others who are majoring in art (design)," he said. "Stuff like this is good because it attracts the high-level learner into the program, but from what I'm hearing many of these high-level learners don't know how to build anything. So a program like this is good for them.

"For the hands-on learner, it's the kind of program that will encourage them to learn science.

"It's a shame a lot of schools haven't bought into it. A lot of industrial engineering programs (formerly known as industrial arts) are closing because there's no interest. I think if the industrial teachers get into this, it'll save programs because there's a lot of curriculum-integrating taking place. You're not only teaching how to build it but (students) have to know something about stress and strain, strength of material to do it."