BRUNSWICK

Students at Brunswick High School are using their smarts, skills, and a little ingenuity in hopes that they can build prize-winning underwater robots. After school, students in the newly formed robotics club, armed with drills and soldering irons, are building the machines that will compete against other schools later this month.

“I’ve always been interested in it, but I’ve never really done much,” said BHS grade 9 student Nolan Deck, 14, in explaining why he joined the club. “I’ve always found this stuff fun. I really like the idea of building it myself.”

Connor Flotten, 15, is in 10th grade, and joined because he said he was looking for a challenge.

“It’s going to be our creation,” Flotten said.

Students are building robots, tethered to a remote control, that can maneuver underwater to perform tasks including completing an obstacle course, striking targets, and lifting objects.

The students have less than a month to complete their robots in order to participate in the SeaPerch competition that takes place March 28 in Bath.

Other teams from schools in Maine and New Hampshire will join them.

The SeaPerch program “equips teachers and students with the resources they need” in order to build a robot with simple kits, including PVC piping and motors, according to the SeaPerch website.

The program gives students the chance to learn about robotics, engineering, science and math as they build their robot.

A complete SeaPerch kit can cost up to $169, and BHS teachers heading up the robotics club say they are looking for funding sources, said teacher Cindy Cygan.

Nearly 40 students have expressed interest in the club, which started a few weeks ago, and active members are already busy constructing their SeaPerch robots.

The club helps students figure out how to put those various pieces together and, working in teams, solve engineering and design problems.

“I think it gives students the opportunity to see the connection between their tech classes, their math classes, their science classes, and to put it into application,” said BHS teacher Sandy Dolan. “Within the curriculum, there’s really not a lot of opportunity to have that cross-discipline approach.”

Nathaniel Goddard, an A.V. tech, said that he is always trying to get students to “problem-solve, diagnose, and use creativity” outside the areas of music and theater.

“It’s another way of expression,” said Goddard. “This is an engineering form of art — how you put piece A together with piece B to accomplish goal C.”