Powell Township School students and community members crowd around a hole cut through the ice on Lake Independence in Big Bay recently to look under the ice using an underwater robot. The remotely operated vehicle was built by the students with assistance from the community. The project began with discovering how ROV’s are used today to help with real world needs. Then the students learned concepts that included engineering, buoyancy, design and construction. The students plan to use the ROV to study the waters surrounding the Big bay area, including water quality and soil samples. We would like to thank The project was supported by the Seaborg Center At Northern Michigan university, the Upper Great Lakes Stewardship Initiative and the Carl Don Johnson Foundation at Powell Township School.