Sea+Perch+Institute+Home

=Student Leader Meeting= Friday March 30th, 2012 4:30 - 6:30pm

=Next Teacher Meeting Saturday April 21st.= 9am - 12pm MIT Sea Grant - 7th Floor Conference Room

=**Final Event Day**= Thursday May 3rd

=About the Sea Perch Institute= The Sea Perch Institute (SPI) encourages and supports advanced and multidisciplinary curriculum, in and out of the classroom. Students are given technical support and asked to solve a complex, real world problem from the field of ocean engineering

Every year, educators from [|MIT Sea Grant] accept applications from New England Teachers. The schools that are selected to compete are given technical and financial support. In exchange, the teachers and their students build underwater ROVs-remotely operated vehicles--that are capable of solving a complex, real-world problem from the field of ocean engineering. At the end of the school year, the students travel to the MIT campus to compete in the yearly challenge. In 2010, the students had to recover a sunken ship. This year, they'll have to respond to a disastrous oil spill.

=About MIT Sea Grant= The mission of the MIT Sea Grant College Program is to employ innovative research, education and outreach strategies to responsibly use and sustain the vital marine resources of Massachusetts. The issues we address manifest locally but many are global in nature. Compelling challenges demand our attention as a solo entity and in partnership with other groups living and working on the coasts and at sea. MIT Sea Grant brings the substantial intellectual abilities of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and our sister universities to bear on ocean-related challenges requiring an extraordinary technical contribution. In meeting these challenges, we expand human understanding of the ocean and establish the infrastructure to sustain the initiatives and talent pool needed to address complex issues of critical and fragile marine resources.

=The Challenge 2011-2012= Early this morning, an offshore drilling rig leased by a local oil company experienced a sudden explosion. The rig was in the final stages of drilling an exploratory well, just 50 miles of the coastline. The full scope of the incident in currently unknown, but an oil slick has begun to appear on the surface surrounding the rig site. The source and rate of the leak is unknown, but it seems to be rapidly spreading and there is great concern that it will cause devastating effects on local industry and the environment if not addressed soon. You have been asked to assist in mitigating the disaster, as part of a science and engineering response team, using your cutting edge ROV technology.