PORT TOWNSEND — Jefferson County students, supported by the Applied Education Foundation, are wrapping gifts to raise money to buy equipment for underwater robots in the days leading up to Christmas.
The students — who are from Grant Street Elementary, Blue Heron Middle School and, Jefferson Community School and include home-schooled — are all participants in the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics, or S.T.E.A.M, after-school program run by 4-H and plan to buy new motors for the prototypes they are building.
The students — who have named their team the Dueling Dragons — began on Dec. 16 wrapping presents daily from 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. at Flagship Landing, 1007 Water St., in Port Townsend. They will continue that schedule through Saturday.
An anonymous donor will match the amount the students earn, said the team’s coach, 15-year-old Ella Ashford, who is home-schooled.
“It’s a big deal for our underwater robotics team,” Ashford said.
Team members hope to complete the robots for the Washington State Science and Engineering Fair scheduled March 31 to April 1 in Silverdale.
The team has been building robot prototypes for Hawaii Memorial Reefs, which creates artificial reefs using reef balls, concrete artificial reef structures.
The artificial reefs also can serve as final resting places for ashes of the deceased.
“It’s kind of like a sea burial but it also helps coral,” Ashford said.
Currently the company uses divers to place the reef balls, but scuba gear is expensive so the students have been tasked with creating a robot to do that job instead.
The students have been testing cameras to ensure those operating the robots can see what they are doing.
The outcome of their tests can be viewed, along with an interactive reef game, next to the gift wrapping station in Flagship Landing.
The interactive game was created by the students. It consists of a reef, constructed by the students from cardboard and construction paper, and a target where people can shoot “solutions” or “pollution” at the reef. If the target is hit, LED lights around the reef light up.
“It’s just a fun game to entertain people,” Ashford said.
“We want to make it more interactive but it’s a way to teach kids about what kind of pollution hurts reefs. So it’s kind of a fundraiser but also an educational event.”
S.T.E.A.M. students also have a virtual reality headset, which people can try while the students are wrapping their presents.
The headset will work with a phone. Ashford said the goal, once the students have motors for their robots, is to find a way to make operating a robot a virtual reality experience.
“So the operator would wear a VR headset and when he moves his head, the camera on the robot would move too,” Ashford said. “Then they could see what is happening around them.”
While the gift-wrapping ends Christmas Eve, the students’ interactive reef will be on display next to the Gingerbread House Contest entries until Dec. 30.
The contest, which was traditionally held at Aldrich’s Market, has been moved this year to Flagship Landing under the auspices of the Port Townsend Main Street Program. Entries in the contest will be accepted through Dec. 30 and judging will be at 1 p.m. Jan. 7.
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Jefferson County Editor/Reporter Cydney McFarland can be reached at 360-385-2335, ext. 55052, or at cmcfarland@peninsuladailynews.com.
