SEA-Tech is a science and technology 4-H club started in January of 2001. As a STEM based program, Sea-Tech 4-H club is on the cutting edge of current educational movements across the country. Both educational institutions and the business community recognize a need to encourage Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math; the four elements of STEM. The club's name, SEA-Tech, is an acronym for Skag
it Exploration And marine TECHnology. Sea-Tech was founded to inspire students to pursue STEM based studies by capturing their imagination with the excitement of underwater exploration. The hands-on experience offered by the club provides students a look at the engineering skills essential to solving complex problems. Designing and constructing an underwater vehicle, commonly called remotely operated vehicles (ROV’s), which can perform useful tasks, is a challenging and rewarding undertaking with complex problems to solve. The objective of the club is to provide a safe and challenging environment where junior high and high school students can develop an appreciation for marine related science, engineering, and technology, by working on the design, construction and operation of ROV’s. Individual report assignments, team competitions, and group projects are designed to advance the students understanding in a variety of technical areas, and the underlying physical principles behind them. Club activities encourage the development of critical thinking skills and creative problem solving. Group projects provide opportunities for collaboration between student teams involved in complex technical problem solving. To date the club has designed and built twenty-two small demonstration ROV’s, complete with video cameras, lights, manipulators and remote control; built a full-scale mockup of an SSOV, (shallow submergence mini-sub); refurbished and operate a hyper-baric test chamber that can simulate pressure to ocean depths of 1650 feet; designed and programmed an underwater virtual piloting simulator; and completed many complex ROVs used to compete in regional and international competitions. The club has assembled and staffed displays for twelve county fairs, numerous school science fairs, a showcase display for the National 4-H Educators Conference, and conducted numerous field trips focused on science and marine technology related topics. SEA-Tech 4-H, a club which began as a home school class project twelve years ago, sent two teams to the International Competition in Orlando, Florida, hosted by the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center (MATE Center). Each team competed at different levels of competition; one in the high school/middle school level, and one in the college level. Every team was required to complete a mission run with their ROV, present their project to a panel of judges through written and verbal presentation, and create and display a poster summarizing their project. SEA-Tech has an outstanding performance at the International Competition, winning 2nd place overall in the college level in 2009, and in 2012, Stanley Janicki was awarded the flying fish award that recognizes one individual’s innovation and ingenuity throughout the ROV competition. The club has also done especially well at the Pacific Northwest Regional Competition by taking awards for design elegance, best poster, and first place.
