What better way to honor the Museum’s S101 submarine exhibit (running from July 28 – August 12 thanks to the OceanGate Foundation), than to have visitors design and operate their own underwater remotely-operated vehicles? ROVs represent a vital aspect of understanding our oceans and other marine environments – they can take measurements of ocean conditions, investigate shipwrecks, take photos of marine life and habitats, and collect specimens for study - and they can do it all in places that are too dangerous for people to go. Over the last two weekends, Museum visitors have built their own ROV frame with supplies from the MATE Center, then with everyday materials like pipe cleaners, mini-butterfly nets, and clothespins, they designed attachments to scoop and gather “specimens” from the bottom of a special tank in the Museum’s Sea Lab. Of course a key part of all scientific endeavors is the experiment, and most learned that driving an ROV is more challenging than it looks, with 3 propellers to operate at the same time. But between seeing the S101 sub, and operating the ROVs, we may have some future submariners in our midst!
Lemaih designs his own ROV...
...and is a successful ROV operator!
