Tag Archives: STEM

Beaverton students qualify for international robotics contest in Tennessee

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4-23-19

By Tracy Crews and Tiffany Woods

BEAVERTON, Ore. – Students from Valor Christian School International in Beaverton have qualified for an international underwater robotics competition in Tennessee after placing first at a similar regional contest in Lincoln City that tested their engineering and problem-solving skills.

Students from Valor Christian School International in Beaverton placed first in the "Ranger" advanced level of an underwater robotics contest in Lincoln City on April 20, 2019.

Students from Valor Christian School International in Beaverton placed first in the “Ranger” advanced level of an underwater robotics contest in Lincoln City on April 20, 2019. (Photo by Adriene Koett-Cronn)

The team, called Valor Maritime International, was one of 25 teams from 12 towns in Oregon and southern Washington that competed in the 8th annual MATE Oregon Regional ROV contest on April 20 at the Lincoln City Community Center. This is the second year in a row that Valor Christian has placed first.

In the pool, over 150 students from elementary through high school demonstrated remotely operated vehicles – or ROVs – that they built for the competition, which aims to prepare students for technical careers.

The event, which was coordinated by Oregon Sea Grant and the Oregon Coast STEM Hub, was divided into three categories based on skill and grade level. Students placing first in the Ranger category advanced to the 18th annual international competition, which will be held June 20-22 in Kingsport, Tenn.

Students from Toledo Elementary School participate in the "Scout" novice level of the contest.

Students from Toledo Elementary School participate in the “Scout” novice level of the contest. (Photo by Adriene Koett-Cronn)

The competition in Lincoln City was one of 38 regional contests around the world that are supported by the California-based Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center.

Each year a new theme is chosen. This year’s theme highlights the role of ROVs in ensuring public safety, maintaining healthy waterways and preserving historical artifacts. The students must guide their ROVs through tasks that simulate inspecting and repairing a hydroelectric dam, removing debris, testing water quality, restoring habitat for fish and recovering a mock cannon from the Civil War. Students must also create marketing displays and give presentations to judges about how they designed and built their robots.

For the Lincoln City contest, volunteer judges and divers came from Garmin, The Sexton Corporation, Oregon State University, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, and the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The Marine Technology Society, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, and Sexton have each pledged $500 to help the Beaverton team travel to Tennessee.

The regional competition is one of many events offered by the Oregon Coast STEM Hub and Oregon Sea Grant to develop Oregon’s future workforce by helping students increase their competency in science, technology, engineering and math.

A judge evaluates a display created by the ROV Sharks, a Wasco County 4-H team from The Dalles.

A judge evaluates a display created by the ROV Sharks, a Wasco County 4-H team from The Dalles. (Photo by Cait Goodwin)

Winners for the regional competition are:

Ranger Level (advanced level, 1st place finisher advances to international competition)
1st Place – Valor Maritime International from Valor Christian School International
2nd Place – The Tiger Sharks from Tigard High School
3rd Place – Devil Dogs from Tillamook High School

Navigator Level (intermediate level, participates only in regional competition)
1st Place – Astern Association from Life Christian School in Aloha
2nd Place – ROV Sharks from Wasco County 4-H in The Dalles
3rd Place – Marine Robotics International from Valor Christian School International

Scout Level (novice level, participates only in regional competition)
1st Place – Warrenton Warriors from Warrenton Grade School
2nd Place – Warrenton Water Masters from Warrenton Grade School
3rd Place (tied) – AROMVs from Toledo Elementary School and Warrenton Warrior Waves from Warrenton Grade School

Team Spirit Award
AROMVs from Toledo Elementary School

More information:

Students to compete in underwater robotics contest in Lincoln City April 20

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4-17-19

By Tiffany Woods

LINCOLN CITY, Ore. – About 150 students in Oregon and Washington from elementary school through college will compete in Lincoln City on April 20 in an underwater robotics contest that tests their engineering and problem-solving skills.

A student-operated robot performs a task as part of a Marine Advanced Technology Education Remotely Operated Vehicle competition. Oregon Sea Grant coordinates the annual event.

A student-operated robot performs a task as part of the 2017 MATE ROV competition. Oregon Sea Grant coordinates the annual event. (Photo by Justin Smith)

The 27 teams, which hail from 13 schools or organizations in 14 towns, will be showing off the remotely operated vehicles – or ROVs – they built for the annual MATE Oregon Regional ROV competition. The event is funded by Oregon Sea Grant and the Oregon Coast STEM Hub and aims to prepare students for technical careers.

The public is invited to attend the contest, which will be held from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. in the swimming pool and gym at the Lincoln City Community Center at 2150 N.E. Oar Place.

The Oregon teams come from Albany, Astoria, Beaverton, Corvallis, Lincoln City, Newport, The Dalles, Tigard, Tillamook, Toledo and Warrenton. The Washington teams are from White Salmon. The college students are from Oregon State University and Linn-Benton Community College. Teams are divided into four categories based on skill and grade level.

The event is one of 38 regional contests around the world that are coordinated by the California-based Marine Advanced Technology Education (MATE) Center. The top high school and college teams will qualify to compete in the MATE International ROV Competition, which will be held June 20-22 in Kingsport, Tenn.

Students are tasked with creating mock companies, building a robot for a hypothetical client, and thinking like entrepreneurs to market their products. They gain project management and communication skills as they manage a budget, work as a team, brainstorm solutions and deliver presentations.

A student operates an ROV at the 2017 competition.

A student operates an ROV at the 2017 competition. (Photo by Daniel Cespedes)

Each year a new theme is chosen. This year’s contest highlights the role of ROVs in ensuring public safety, maintaining healthy waterways and preserving historical artifacts. The students must guide their devices through tasks that simulate inspecting and repairing a mock hydroelectric dam, monitoring water quality, restoring habitat for fish and recovering a hypothetical cannon from the Civil War. The latter task is only for the upper two levels. Students will also present marketing displays they created and give presentations to judges about how they built their device.

The judges and volunteer divers come from Oregon State University, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The MATE Center, the Marine Technology Society, the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, and The Sexton Corporation also support the competition.

The contest is one of many events offered by the Oregon Coast STEM Hub and Oregon Sea Grant to develop Oregon’s future workforce by helping students increase their competency in science, technology, engineering and math.

More information:

Community college and high school students to spend four days on OSU research vessel

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September 14, 2018

By Sean Nealon

Students and teachers will join OSU scientists on the R/V Oceanus this month to gain at-sea research experience.

Students and teachers will join OSU scientists on the R/V Oceanus this month to gain at-sea research experience. (Photo by Pat Kight)

Oregon high school and community college students and teachers will join Oregon State University scientists on the research vessel Oceanus this month to gain at-sea research experience as part of a project to enhance STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills.

The cruise, scheduled from Sept. 23 to 26, will depart from Newport, travel south along the Oregon coast to Stonewall and Heceta Banks, before veering northward to the Astoria Canyon, then into the Columbia River to Portland before returning to Newport. The research vessel will dock for two days in Portland, where there will be a series of activities, including tours for Portland area K-12 students.

Students on last year's cruise help retrieve the "Sonde," an instrument used to measure the conductivity, temperature and pressure of seawater.

Students on a 2016 cruise help retrieve the “Sonde,” an instrument used to measure the conductivity, temperature and pressure of seawater. (Photo by Tracy Crews)

The students and teachers participating in the cruise are from high schools in Bandon, Lincoln City and Warrenton, as well as Southwestern Oregon Community College and Oregon Coast Community College.

“This project will provide a transformational educational experience for high school and community college students and their teachers,” said Tracy Crews, marine education manager for Oregon Sea Grant. “By immersing students and teachers in at-sea research, we hope to increase the STEM-related skills of all participants and encourage students to seek out STEM careers.”

During the cruise, participants will conduct marine mammal and seabird surveys and correlate the presence and absence with oceanographic data. They will also conduct plankton tows where marine mammals are located to determine prey availability. Photo-identification of whales will be conducted to describe individual movement patterns, and the team will fly drones over whales to document behavior and assess body condition.

The project is a collaborative effort from Oregon Sea Grant, Oregon State’s College of Earth, Ocean and Atmospheric Sciences and the Oregon Coast STEM Hub, which serves educators, students and communities along the Oregon coast and is located at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport. The research vessel Oceanus is operated by Oregon State University and owned by the National Science Foundation.

Leigh Torres, an assistant professor at Oregon State and a member of the university’s Marine Mammal Institute, and Kim Bernard, an assistant professor at Oregon State who leads the Zooplankton Ecology Lab, will be the chief scientists on the excursion.

Oregon Coast STEM Hub names new director

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July 11, 2018

by Rick Cooper

Lisa Blank, a professor of science education at the University of Montana, has been named as the new director of the Oregon Coast STEM Hub.

Lisa Blank, new director of the Oregon Coast STEM Hub

Science educator Lisa Blank has been named director of the Oregon Coast STEM Hub. (Photo by Logan Parson)

Blank, who will be based in Newport and start her job on Aug. 13, has a history of building partnerships between industries and organizations in the STEM fields and STEM educators in the academic pipeline from preschool to college. She began her career as an environmental scientist mitigating Superfund sites. She later taught middle- and high-school science and held academic positions at SUNY-Cortland and the University of Montana.

“The Oregon Coast STEM Hub brings together a diverse group of partners to provide student experiences and teacher opportunities the entire length of the Oregon coast,” said Shelby Walker, director of Oregon Sea Grant, which administers the hub. “As an experienced teacher and researcher in STEM education, Dr. Blank will enhance that partnership and work to expand and improve the opportunities for students and teachers to engage in STEM learning.”

Blank, who earned her doctorate in science education at Indiana University, collaborated on projects that provided computer science curriculum, industry internships and professional development for students and teachers across Montana in partnership with Montana State University, Montana-Tech and Salish-Kootenai College. Blank said she loves “making connections between people and ideas and systems” and is excited to serve in her new position as a “partner and resource in advancing STEM opportunities throughout coastal Oregon.”

As director of the Oregon Coast STEM Hub, Blank will handle its administration, strategic leadership, resource development, management of grant funds, evaluation and high-level public exposure. She will also support the work of a multidisciplinary leadership council, lead STEM Hub staff and engage diverse stakeholders from public and private sectors to achieve regional and statewide goals.

The Oregon Coast STEM Hub promotes integrated science, technology, engineering and math education and serves coastal teachers, students and communities. It is one of several regional STEM Hubs funded by the Oregon Department of Education. The hub is based at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport and serves the entire Oregon coast. Oregon Sea Grant has been a foundational partner of the STEM Hub and recently assumed a role as the administrative home for the director.

Newport HS students qualify for international underwater robotics contest

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Students from Newport High School have qualified for an international underwater robotics competition in California after placing first at a similar contest in Lincoln City that tested their engineering and problem-solving skills.

“The Finnovators” were one of 31 teams from Oregon that participated in the state’s 6th annual Marine Advanced Technology Education Remotely Operated Vehicle competition on April 29 at the pool at the Lincoln City Community Center. More than 200 students from elementary school through college demonstrated devices they built for the competition, which aims to prepare students for technical careers.

Teams hailed from Astoria, Warrenton, Tillamook, Lincoln City, Newport, Toledo, Eddyville, Waldport, Florence, Bandon, Albany, Aloha, Tigard, Beaverton and The Dalles.

The competition, which was coordinated by Oregon Sea Grant and sponsored by the Oregon Coast STEM Hub, was divided into four categories based on skill and grade level. Only two of the categories, Ranger and Explorer, allowed students to advance to the 16th annual international competition, which will be held June 23-25 in Long Beach, Calif., and will feature the top 60 teams from around the globe, including ones from Canada, the United Kingdom, the Middle East and Russia.

“The Finnovators” were in the Ranger level, which requires students to perform all tasks without looking in the pool and instead rely only on the sensors and cameras on their robot. Although they are not required to compete in the regional competition, two Explorer-level teams from Linn-Benton Community College and Clatsop Community College demonstrated their robots. They, along with another Explorer team from Oregon State University, are working on fulfilling requirements to qualify for the international competition.

The Oregon event is one of 30 regional contests around the world that are coordinated by the California-based Marine Advanced Technology Education Center.

Each year a new theme is chosen. This year’s theme highlights the role of remotely operated vehicles – or ROVs – in monitoring the environment and supporting industries in port cities. Like port managers and marine researchers, the students at the Lincoln City contest guided their robots through tasks that simulated identifying cargo containers that fell overboard, repairing equipment, and taking samples of hypothetically contaminated sediment and shellfish. Students also presented marketing materials they created and gave engineering presentations.

Additional support for the event came from the MATE Center, the Marine Technology Society, the Association of Unmanned Vehicle Systems International, Oregon State University, the Oregon Coast Aquarium, the Georgia-Pacific Foundation, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. More than 50 volunteers from these and other organizations ran the competition and served as judges and divers.

Photos of the competition can be downloaded from Oregon Sea Grant’s Flickr page.

Read more about the event in the Newport News Times.

Winners of the Oregon competition are:
RANGER CLASS (intermediate level, 1st place finisher advances to international competition)

1st Place – The Finnovators from Newport High School in Newport

2nd Place – Knight Marine from Valor Christian School International in Beaverton

3rd Place – R.U.W.E. from Taft High School in Lincoln City

NAVIGATOR CLASS (intermediate level, participates only in regional competition)

1st Place – Laveer Enterprise from Life Christian School in Aloha

2nd Place – EROV from Taft High School in Lincoln City

3rd Place – ROV Sharks from Wasco County 4-H in The Dalles

SCOUT CLASS (novice level, participates only in regional competition)

1st Place – Valor Tech from Valor Christian School International in Beaverton

2nd Place – Jet Sky from Siuslaw High School in Florence

3rd Place – Water Warriors from Warrenton Grade School in Warrenton

ADDITIONAL AWARD

Team Spirit Award – Water Warriors from Warrenton Grade School in Warrenton

OSU to host Marine Science Day this Saturday, April 8

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Oregon State University’s Hatfield Marine Science Center will hold its annual Marine Science Day on Saturday, April 8, giving visitors an opportunity to see laboratories behind the scenes, interact with student scientists and learn more about current marine research.

The event is free and open to the public, and takes place from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the center, located in Newport southeast of the Highway 101 bridge over Yaquina Bay. It will feature interactive, hands-on exhibits and opportunities to talk with researchers from OSU and other federal and state agencies.

The theme is “Celebrating Student Research,” and student scientists will be among the researchers presenting exhibits on marine mammals, oyster aquaculture, ocean acidification, ocean noise, seagrass ecology, fisheries, deep-sea vents and more. Visitors can learn about research diving with the OSU Dive Team, observe microscopic plankton, tour a genetics lab and hear about the NOAA Corps’ 100th year as a commissioned service.

Special activities for children will be offered by Oregon Sea Grant and the Oregon Coast Aquarium. The Oregon Coast STEM Hub and representatives from OSU and Oregon Coast Community College will also be available to engage K-12 students interested in pursuing marine studies.

Special events include:

  • A lecture at 2:30 p.m. by José R. Marín Jarrín, Charles Darwin Foundation, Galápagos, Ecuador, on “From Hatfield to the Charles Darwin Foundation: The importance of student research experiences”
  • Opening celebration at 10:30 a.m. for the Experimental Seawater Facility, funded by the National Science Foundation
  • A public feeding of Opal the octopus at 1 p.m. in the Visitors Center

Visitors may also learn about the progress of OSU’s Marine Studies Initiative, which seeks to host 500 students-in-residence in Newport by 2025.

“With a new teaching and research facility in the fundraising and design phase, Marine Science Day offers a great opportunity to understand why we are so excited about OSU’s Marine Studies Initiative,” said Bob Cowen, director of the Hatfield Marine Science Center.

“It is also a chance to learn about our scientists – who we are, what we do, and how we, as university, state and federal partners, work together and with communities to better understand and solve our marine and coastal challenges.”

More information about the event is available here.

(From a news release provided by Maryann Bozza, HMSC)

Photo caption: An octopus will be among the many exhibits and activities during Marine Science Day at the OSU Hatfield Marine Science Center. (Photo courtesy of Oregon State University)