March 2022
Some eighth grade students at Stephen F. Austin Middle School in Bryan are headed to a regional robotics competition. The Odyssey Academy students from SFA took class out of of the classroom and into the pool at Advanced Therapy Aquatics and Wellness to test their underwater robots. “It gives them a really abstract challenge. Something you don’t typically do in a middle school setting,” said Parker Knutson, one of their engineering teachers. “They have to do the engineering design process. They have documentation that they keep track of. And they have to build their robots, underwater robots, from scratch–the motors, every aspect of it.” Those underwater robots, controlled by their young creators, competed in two courses: a speed challenge and a practical skills challenge–all underwater.