Underwater robotics program in Manatee Schools to expand

MANATEE COUNTY, Fla. — Anna Maria Island Elementary School students are ending the school in competitive spirits with an underwater robotics competition.

It’s part of the Guy Harvey Academy of Arts and Sciences, designed to help students better understand the ocean and the environment.

The underwater robotics program has become such a success that the district wants to expand it to middle and high school students.

Pidge Barreda is the classes STEM teacher at Anna Maria Elementary School in Manatee County.

“We talked a lot about the career paths things like this can lead to and how it can start them on a career path. It would be interesting to see in 20 years what these kids can do,” she said.

By competition day, Dylan Sato and his team had been working towards this the whole school year.

Sato and 14 other students spent a month building these remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs.

These are similar to underwater robots that travel to hard-to-reach areas on the ocean floor. 

Classmates split into groups to see how many magnets and rings each of their robots collects. The assignment encouraged teamwork.

“They are all my friends,” said Sato, who has been in the program for two years. “Asher is the smart kid, the mathematical strategy guy. Then Fabian is the one that keeps us laughing—very funny, very outgoing, sends a good vibe.

“I’m the one whose dad owns a real estate and car rental company, so I was always around just building things.”

Once time is up, they count.

“We have two big rings, that’s 30, and one big magnet,” he said.

The group with the most points wins. Sato’s team came in second.

“Not bad. It’s all for the fun of it. Altogether 52 points, so a really good first run,” he said.

These machines might look complex, but Sato makes it simple.

“Basically, how this works is this right here is the brain, and this red wire runs dead smack until this runs black and brown wires, sends the electricity in here, and motor right here.”

For him, building robots is second nature. He is even considering this industry as a possible career.

“My backup plan if I don’t want to be a professional lacrosse player or sports commentator, I want to do aerospace engineering. I thought that would be cool.”

This underwater robotics program inspires students to dive into learning more about the ocean.

This program also allows other Title 1 districts to take field trips to Anna Maria Elementary School.

The Guy Harvey Foundation is expanding its curriculum to more schools around Florida.