Sea Perch

I know I said it a million times, but I love our school district.  Max's MOSAICS teacher asked if he wanted to be part of a small group of kids to participate in Sea Perch.  It is a program run by the US Navy to encourage kids to get into engineering.  The boys worked in a team of four on two different Saturdays to build a robotic submersible.  Last month was the big day when they put their submersible to the test to complete two different obstacle

 Unfortunately they weren't able practice in a pool as planned, so the day of the event the boys had to make a few last minute changes.

 The first task was to remove items from one table and drop them on another about six feet down.  The boys got so close!  The second task was to drive their submersible though a set of rings going different directions.  One of their motors kept falling off on this one.

Between their two rounds the boys actually had he honor of meeting an admiral in the navy.  He talked to them briefly about how important engineers are to the navy as well as the entire country.  He awarded each child a special military coin.  I don't know if Max quite got it, but my cousin that served in the navy told me he was once yelled at by an admiral and felt honored.

Max has been fortunate enough to work with this amazing woman since first grade.  Max has learned so much from her - how to solve conflict, how to listen to others' ideas, how to persevere when things aren't easy, how to work in a group effectively.  The list goes on and on.  The skills she teaches will serve Max for many years to come.

The entire day was actually pretty incredible.  They had lot of different demonstrations going on and the little boys also had a blast.  They saw lots of cool tricks using electricity, they shot of paper rockets they made themselves, and they even got to make slime!

I'll say it one more time - I love our school district and the opportunities they provide!