Ethel Walker School
The Middle School Robotics team with their first place trophy for the Middle School Obstacle Course division in the SeaPerch ROV Challenge.
The Middle School Robotics team competed in the SeaPerch ROV competition on Thursday, March 3, 2022. The competition was hosted by The Ethel Walker School and facilitated by The American School for the Deaf, with dozens of teams traveling from all over the country to compete. The competition was divided into two divisions: high schools competing first and middle schools competing thereafter. Teams could compete in the Obstacle Course, composed of five rings to travel through, or the Mission Course, which included driving the robot to open doors and move different parts for specified point values.
Ethel Walker’s aquatic robot was designed and built by the Middle School Robotics team, and driven during the competition by Maylia Jordan ’26 and McKenna Baldwin ’28. The team is coached by science faculty Dr. Emma Mitchell.
The Robotics team entered the Obstacle Course, where teams are allowed to go through the course twice for the competition. In their first attempt, the team’s aquatic robot got its tether severely tangled in the hoops through which it was navigating, and after Maylia and McKenna spent 10 minutes valiantly trying to detangle it using the robot’s motors and controller, it ultimately had to be rescued by a scuba diver. In their second attempt through the course, Maylia and McKenna worked together to determine a set of strategies to overcome these challenges, and they ended up finishing the course in a winning 4 minutes and 40 seconds!
Thank you to all participating schools, SeaPerch, and STEM for your partnership for a great competition and challenge.
