The 20 eighth-graders built submersible remotely operated vehicles (ROVs) and tested them at Woodlands Pool.

Thanks to 40 feet of coaxial cable linking each team's control box to the motors on its roving vehicle, the simple submersibles were sent up and down, round and round and left and right before being steered back to the surface.

Mission accomplished.

But this was not a game.

This elective is meant to meet a growing national concern that young Americans are behind students in a host of other countries in the fields of science, technology, engineering and math--the STEM concept.

"The United States is losing technological capability to the rest of the world," said Warren Hamblet, who teaches eighth-grade engineering electives at Poole and gave the kids the rover assignment.

Eighty 13-to-14-year-olds sign up for 18-week classes like this during the school year.

"They take the STEM because it uses mathematics and technology in ways they see useful," Hamblet said. "Taking only math and science classes interests them less."

The next STEM project: structural engineering.

"The projects also teach hand-eye coordination," said Molly Lewis, who with her teammate Rachel Zlotnick, both 14, built the ROV she was guiding back to the surface from a 40-foot ramble. "And how to build things."

The ROV project is backed by the federal Office of Naval Research, which, in turn, has worked with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in designing projects that could be handled at the middle school level but relate to long-range needs in world technology. One result is the Sea Perch program, a simple submersible vehicle that could be the basis for such real-world underwater missions as testing for water salinity or temperature, as well as being a platform for underwater photography or television monitoring.

The H.H. Poole students built their Sea Perch models this fall. Virtually all the materials were available at local home supply stores. The 12- by 10- by 8-inch open structure is formed from half-inch PVC piping. It is powered by three small waterproof electric motors driving propellers. Pipe insulation wrapping gives the ROV neutral buoyancy in the water, where an ROV weighs virtually nothing (thus it responds easily to its controls). Out of the water, a Sea Perch weighs 3 pounds. Each took two- or three-student teems two or three weeks to build.

"This is good, technical stuff the kids are learning," Hamblet said. "This is their future, and their country's too."

Hugh Muir: 540/735-1975
Email: hmuir@freelancestar.com