SPED Underwater Robotics Workshop
Originally Published April 24, 2019
On April 23, the Young Scientists Program invited 16 special education students, their teachers Ms. Gibbs and Ms. Wilt, and their chaperones from Norwood Street Elementary to University of Southern California‘s University Park Campus for a workshop on underwater robotics and a USC campus tour. During this workshop, students had the opportunity to perform hands-on experiments that enabled them to explore the basic principles underlying robotics engineering, and the technical skills involved in building robots that are capable of underwater exploration.
To begin the workshop the YSP Special Education Initiative Founder, Lauren Clarke gave a presentation that provided an overview of the activities featured and placed students into groups before starting the experiments for the day. All of our Special Education (SPED) TA’s came to work the event including Mary Ann Cabrales, Dominique Sharp, and Karla Santoyo. YSP Staff and volunteers also came to support the event including Rita Barakat, Cecily Pulver, Candace Ro, Anna Niesman, Shreya Sridhara, Sylvia Kast, David Abelson, and Dieuwertje Kast.
Following this opening presentation, the young scientists participated in two stations that allowed them to dive into the science of underwater robotics. The first station encompassed a lesson on Cartesian Divers which demonstrated the concepts of buoyancy and pressure in fluids. This served as a supplement to the main underwater robots activity and offered students an opportunity to learn more about the science behind how underwater robots function.
The second station called on the students to use their knowledge of robotics, circuitry, and fluids to design and build their own underwater robots. With the help of USC YSP TA’s, Volunteers, students were able to build underwater robots using PVC pipe and test their robot’s ability to move around in all directions (up-down, left-right) in a kiddie pool. One student, Xavier Lopez said “This is engineering! I feel like an engineer!”
The robot setup was lent to us from the USC Wrigley Institute for Environmental Studies and the University of Southern California Sea Grant and thanks specifically to Linda Chilton and Lynn Whitley for making that happen. This workshop was made possible with funding by Lowe’s Home Improvement‘s Toolbox Grant.
