FORKS — Students from Forks Intermediate School, Lake High School, Neah Bay High School, Quileute Tribal School and the Port Townsend STEM Club recently met at the Olympic Coast MATE ROV Competition.
The annual competition, which was conducted at the Forks Athletic and Aquatic Club, is sponsored by the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration’s Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuary.
The competition encourages students to learn and apply science, technology, engineering and math skills to develop underwater robots to complete missions based on real-world issues and events.
This year’s competition highlighted the roles that ROVs may play to support alternative energy, managing healthy waterways, monitoring endangered species and long-term oceanographic moorings.
Two teams from Forks took first place in their respective classes; additionally, Alice Ryan, a teacher at Quileute Tribal School, was named Mentor of the Year.
Winners of the competition were:
Scout class — first place, Forks Whales, Forks; second place, Enterprize, Forks; and third place, Team #1, Neah Bay.
Navigator class — first place, The Blobbies, Forks; second place, Aqua Pack, Quileute Tribal School; and third place, Ocean Enginerds, Lake Quinault.
The competition was also supported by members of Cyance, a Ranger class world-qualifying team from Whidbey Island who helped with judging and general ROV knowledge.
