BATH

With remotes in hand, students peered anxiously over the edge of the Bath YMCA pool to see how their tethered underwater robots would perform on Saturday.

For months, middle schoolers and high schoolers all over the state have been preparing for the Northern New England SeaPerch Challenge, making sure their robots are ready to take on a variety of underwater obstacle courses and exercises.

“It just keeps growing every year,” said coordinator David Marcello. “It’s very hands on, and it’s got a challenge to it.”

With this year’s turnout of 18 teams, Marcello said they could potentially send a middle school and high school team to nationals, where winners will get to compete in a nationwide competition at Louisiana State University in May.

Amidst the crowd of students and coaches, volunteers also bustled back and forth on Saturday judging courses or handling scorecards, including some crew members of the Zumwalt destroyer.

Kate Johnson, an FC2 controlman on the Zumwalt, was amazed with the students’ ability to put STEM concepts, a curriculum based on science, technology, engineering and mathematics, into action.

“These kids are really young and already kind of getting into science and STEM, and it’s really, really cool,” she said. “Everything we do is geared toward STEM, which is why it’s really nice to see this at a younger age and that they’re getting a head start.”

“It is unique in terms of STEM technology,” said Harris Whitehead, a competition judge. “But anytime you engage in a competition or learn a lot about some principles and put them into use, it’s a good building block for growth.”

While SeaPerch kits are close to $200, it takes skill, time and a little creativity for teams of two to five to assemble a competitive robot.

Ashley Parker, a junior at Mt. Ararat High School in Topsham, said she and her two teammates took three and a half months to build their robot, devoting about two hours each week.

“We originally had a different design, but we realized … that it wasn’t working and the buoyancy was off and it kept capsizing, so we had to change our design,” she said.

“I like the challenge and also when we figure something out that works well, it’s really good to know that we came up with that ourselves,” Parker added. “To see it in action is really cool.”

For another Mt. Ararat team that attended last year’s national competition, the experience was a valuable one for this year’s competition.

“We saw teams using electro resisters to slow down the motors,” said student Ian Scanlon. “It’s basically something we plug in and it wastes electricity intentionally and it causes the motors to move slower and allows it to perform finesse-based tasks more easily.”

While it was an idea that they had to scrap eventually, it’s all part of the learning process — and what keeps them hooked.

“It’s a unique challenge that we don’t see in the classroom,” said team member Ryan Rethi.