Sammy the Seabot

Tabor Academy was recently awarded a Lemelson-MIT InvenTeam grant in the amount of $10,000 to create Sammy the Seabot, an ROV (remote operated vehicle) device to monitor water quality variables in Buzzards Bay. Tabor is one of 15 high schools nationwide to be selected as an InvenTeam this year.

InvenTeams are teams of high school students, teachers and mentors that receive grants up to $10,000 each to invent technological solutions to real-world problems. This initiative of the Lemelson-MIT Program aims to inspire a new generation of inventors.

“The InvenTeams program represents the future,” said Leigh Estabrooks, invention education officer from the Lemelson-MIT Program. “We place an emphasis on STEM-focused projects to develop interest in these fields among youth. With InvenTeams, our primary goal is to foster high school students’ passion for invention, in turn inspiring them to consider careers in science, technology, engineering or math.”

Dr. Karl Kistler at Tabor Academy initiated the InvenTeam application process last spring and was invited to attend training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in June to help prepare the final proposal. A prestigious panel of judges composed of educators, researchers, staff and alumni from MIT, as well as representatives from the industry and former Lemelson-MIT Award winners, assembled this fall and selected Tabor Academy as one of this year’s InvenTeam grantees.

The Tabor Academy InvenTeam is collaborating with Tabor’s Marine Science Program teachers who have helped to create the program requirements for the bot. A contest is ensuing among two design teams to come up with the most effective design to meet the research requirements of the marine science department.

Dr. Karl Kistler shared, “The team will design and build a mobile research device to monitor the health of the environment of Sippican Harbor and coastal communities everywhere. The device will be operated remotely via a tether or programmed to function autonomously to collect samples and take measurements that would be useful to our marine science classes, the town of Marion, the Buzzards Bay Coalition, and other researchers.”

Over the next nine months, the Tabor Academy InvenTeam will develop its ROV. In June, the students will showcase a prototype of their invention at EurekaFest at MIT in Cambridge, MA. EurekaFest, presented by the Lemelson-MIT Program, is a multi-day celebration designed to empower a legacy of inventors through activities that inspire youth, honor role models and encourage creativity and problem solving.

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