For the second year in a row, Northumberland Middle School (NMS) participated in SeaPerch, a robotics project led by Shauna McCranie, coordinator of gifted services for the schools.
Team Poseidon from NMS placed first in the competition to qualify for the National SeaPerch Challenge, said McCranie.
The participating students gave up six Friday afternoons to remain after school at NMS or travel to the YMCA swimming pool in Kilmarnock to build and practice with their underwater Remote Operating Vehicle, called a SeaPerch, she said.
These students in grades six through eight learned to cut pipes, solder electrical panels, waterproof batteries and work as a team, she said.
“Congratulations to all of Northumberland’s participants for their hard work in the SeaPerch program,” said McCranie.
On April 15, four NMS teams of two took their SeaPerch to the University of Mary Washington and competed against 75 other teams, said McCranie.
After tallying up all the scores at the fifth annual regional SeaPerch competition, four teams came out as winners. These teams have been invited to Georgia Tech University on May 19 and 20 to compete at the National Sea Perch Challenge, she said.
The top five teams were Team Poseidon, NMS; The Five Stars, Grafton Elementary School; J&J Mechanics, Margaret Brent Elementary School; SeaPerchin, Rodney Thompson Middle School; and Raindrops, Chesapeake Science Point Public Charter School.
“Way to go team #12/Team Poseidon, Luke Swann and Channing Reynolds,” said McCranie. “You two are an amazing team. Congratulations to Luke as this is his second year competing at the National SeaPerch Challenge”
Special thanks to Dahlgren, the Northumberland Association for Progressive Stewardship, Keith Swann, Matthew Sprague and the Northern Neck Family YMCA for helping the students with the SeaPerch program, she said. This has been an amazing grant opportunity and hopefully Northumberland will be able to continue this awesome STEM initiative for years to come.
