Students are pictured on the Lower Harbor dock at the yacht club in Marquette. (Courtesy photo)

AUTRAIN-ONOTA — On Oct. 7, AuTrain-Onota 6th-8th grade students used their underwater remote-operated vehicle to explore Lake Superior at the Lower Harbor in Marquette. It was the deepest dive they made to date, over 40 feet. The students viewed debris like cinder blocks and an old anchor in the Lower Harbor and they hope to participate in local efforts to clean up the bottom of Lake Superior. 

This was just one instance of the real-world applications of their ROV project that the students, ages 11 to 14, have been learning about. Recently, Kall Morris Inc. engineer Sam Cassidy visited the school to teach the students about space debris cleanup using an ROV robot. The Kall Morris-designed robot has been tested on the International Space Station.

In the fall of 2024, the combined classes’ teacher, Amy Pihlainen-Gabler, contacted the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution in Massachusetts to help her students learn more about how ocean researchers use ROVs. WHOI scientists, including a senior scientist on the Titanic wreckage expedition, have spoken to the students several times about the real-world applications of these ROVs. 

The students are in their fourth year building and wiring underwater ROVs. They have worked with local conservation districts on a fish habitat project, as well as won trophies at ROV competitions. They will begin building this year’s robots in November.