Saline County 4-H Robotics Club partners with Easterseals Arkansas to construct assistive technology device

By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture

LITTLE ROCK — Arkansas 4-H members keep their hands and minds busy with a variety of science projects, part of the youth development program’s emphasis on STEM education. One such project found Saline County 4-H SeaCow Robotics Club members putting together a Voice It© assistive technology device at Easterseals in Little Rock.

HELPING HANDS — Katie West, Saline County extension 4-H agent, and Tamara Wald, parent volunteer for the SeaCow Robotics Club, look on as Wald's sons Issac and Luke get started with the video instruction portion of the Voice It© assembly. (Division of Agriculture photo.) 

Clad in their signature black and white checkerboard pants, SeaCow Robotics Club members Kyri Collins, Abby Wald, Issac Wald, Luke Wald and Sarah Wald, 4-H parent Brandon Collins, and coaches Mike Katsen, Stacy Statler and Tamara Wald gathered with Easterseals Arkansas staff to construct the device on April 5.

“Through our partnership with the SeaCow Robotics Club, we hope to shed light on an exciting opportunity for Arkansas school districts to collaborate with their Robotics, East, or STEM programs in order to assemble assistive technology devices,” said Katelynn Estes, doctor of occupational therapy and assistive technology specialist for Easterseals Arkansas Outreach Program and Technology Services. “This provides educational benefits for both the students receiving the device and for the students assembling the device.”

Estes said the Voice It© device reads RFID, or radio frequency identification, tags. These tags can be placed within everyday objects, tactile symbols, picture cards and more. When the Voice It© scans the tag, it speaks a word or phrase out loud using a prerecorded voice.

“For example, if a user has a tactile symbol representing the word ‘more’ with an RFID card installed, they can use the Voice It© in combination with the tactile symbol to speak the word ‘more,’” Estes said. “The Voice It© can also help individuals with low vision identify common objects around their home, school or work environment, such as medicine bottles.”

Tamara Wald, an occupational therapist and parent volunteer, said she was inspired to get involved after attending a course at Easterseals about helping children with multiple disabilities access assistive technology.

“I thought, ‘Why can’t our robotics club help them produce this assistive technology to get it in the hands of more children?’” Tamara said. “They told us there’s not enough of this technology to go around, especially when it comes to some of the 3-D printed items. We’re learning about 3-D printing as a club, so why not try to partner together? What more practical need is there than helping children?”

Some assembly required

Estes said that the assembled Voice It© device, made by the company VolkSwitch, is not available for purchase. However, the device’s design is available for free under a Creative Commons License. Estes said she 3-D printed many parts for the device, including the casing, which helped save on cost, as did the 4-H members’ assembly.

To assemble the device, 4-H members worked on its electrical circuitry, wired it for audio output, installed its battery, configured the device’s software and more.

“The student volunteers also installed feet on the device, verified it was working as expected and ‘wrote’ RFID tags for our Project Core Symbols,” Estes said.

The Project Core Symbols are a set of 3-D, tactile symbols that represent the 36 words in the Universal Core vocabulary, created by The Center for Literacy and Disability Studies and also licensed under a Creative Commons License.

Estes said that thanks to the collaboration between the SeaCow Robotics Club and Easterseals Outreach Program and Technology Services, the Voice It© device will be available for public school districts in Arkansas to checkout, giving students an opportunity to try out the device before schools invest in purchasing one.  

“Through Outreach, we are able to assist public schools and coach teams through a process where they identify features of technology that a particular student requires,” Estes said. “We point them towards specific devices that match the student’s needs, and then the schools may borrow the device in order to ensure data supports the use of the assistive technology. Eventually, they will need to acquire the technology permanently for that student if the trial is successful.”

‘Something for everyone’ in 4-H

Katie West, Saline County extension 4-H agent, said community service projects like this partnership with Easterseals are an important part of 4-H programming.

“Community service brings the children in and makes them feel like a part of that community,” West said. “This helps them become the citizens we need them to be later on, and they’re more likely to lead and figure out what problems they want to address when they’re older.”

Science, technology, engineering and math — or STEM — education is one of the three mission mandates that all Arkansas 4-H project work falls within, West said.

“We have natural resources, wildlife, forestry, electronics — there’s a wide range of programs and activities that children can do,” she said. “This group does robotics, so they’re actually learning technology and coding as well as engineering and how to get things to work.”

Wald said her children have enjoyed the variety of activities and opportunities available in their local 4-H club.

“We are interested in so many things in my family,” Wald said. “Not only does my family participate in the robotics program, but we are also part of a 4-H science club in Bryant, which is led by our wonderful teacher Kristin Higgins, who works in the state extension office. I think 4-H has really opened doors for my children and broadened their horizons to different topics.”  

In just one day, West said her 4-H members were involved in three different competitions: the SeaPerch Challenge, which is an underwater robotics competition, a shooting sports competition, and the 4-H Ross Photography Contest.

“All of these were very different, and so are the children who were interested in these competitions,” West said. “Because of that variety, as they grow, they’re able to figure out what might be their best subject. They can get a lot of scholarships and learn new things as they go.

“They won’t start off knowing exactly what they want to be when they grow up, but with 4-H, they can try everything out, see what works and what doesn’t, and know more about what they are good at by the time they’re an adult,” West said.

Mention of product names does not imply endorsement by the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture.

For more information about Arkansas 4-H, visit 4h.uada.edu or contact your county 4-H agent at uaex.uada.edu/counties/.

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk. 

Grant County 4-H hopes to defend legacy at SeaPerch Challenge

By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture

SHERIDAN, Ark. — PVC pipe, pool noodles, zip ties, 12-volt batteries: these are just a few of the supplies that Arkansas 4-H members are using to build remotely operated vehicles for the upcoming Arkansas SeaPerch Challenge, an underwater robotics competition.

HANDS-ON LEARNING — Brad McGinley, Grant County extension staff chair for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and director of the Arkansas SeaPerch Challenge, helps students attach 3-D printed parts to their remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs. Teams will steer their robots through underwater challenge and obstacle courses at the SeaPerch Challenge on March 1. (Division of Agriculture photo.)

The competition is hosted by Arkansas 4-H, part of the Cooperative Extension Service, and the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas. Participants work within teams to construct remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, and then steer them through underwater obstacle and challenge courses designed to mimic undersea exploration or space missions.

Brad McGinley, Grant County extension staff chair for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture and director of the Arkansas SeaPerch Challenge, said the program prepares participants for real-world challenges.  

“SeaPerch is based on the engineering design process, so it’s about a continual process of improvement,” McGinley said. “You develop a prototype of your ROV, we build it, we test it and we figure out what’s wrong with it. Then we improve it, then we test it again. It’s the same process that an engineer goes through — that’s what we’re trying to do.”

In Sheridan, Arkansas, members of the Grant County 4-H program, as well as students at Sheridan intermediate, middle and high schools, began preparing for the SeaPerch Challenge in October 2023. The competition is scheduled to be held March 1 at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, and the overall winning junior, senior and open teams will compete at the International SeaPerch Challenge at the University of Maryland in May.

Since Arkansas 4-H began participating in the SeaPerch Challenge in 2016, a team from the Grant County 4-H program has won first place every year and advanced to the international competition.

McGinley said that the most significant impact the program has had on participants is in critical thinking skills and problem-solving.

“This is not a video game,” McGinley said. “I think the first thing they realize whenever they build their ROV and put it in the water is that it’s not as easy as it looks. You have to have a lot of trial and error, some ‘stick-to-it-iveness,’ to say, ‘Hey, I’m going to stick this out.’ Things are going to go wrong, and you’ve got to realize that it’s okay. It happens right before you go into the competition, it happens during the competition, and you need to be able to say, ‘How can I quickly solve this problem to the best of my ability?’”

Serena McGinley, a fifth-grade teacher at Sheridan Intermediate School and a 4-H and SeaPerch sponsor, said the program has equipped her students with many important skills.

“SeaPerch has impacted my students in so many ways over the years,” she said. “They learn teamwork, how to use tools, how to problem solve, communication skills and so much more. These skills are not just ‘SeaPerch skills,’ but life skills.

“I have seen students find their passion for engineering in the program,” McGinley said. “My students gain a confidence that can only come from accomplishing a task from the ground up. SeaPerch is so much more than a competition — it is learning how to solve a problem in the most efficient way and communicating that information to others.”  

Practice makes perfect

On a sunny afternoon in late January, Grant County 4-H members and Sheridan Middle School students gathered at the home of Beverly Wells, a former Sheridan School Board member, who lets the SeaPerch students use her outdoor pool to practice with their ROVs.

Brad McGinley said Wells’s generosity has been critical to the success of the SeaPerch program in Grant County.

“It’s a godsend that we have this,” he said. “She’s been so generous to allow us to come over here and basically take her pool over for several months. Before, we had an indoor pool that we were able to use, but they closed that pool down, and this is the only one we have access to locally. If we didn’t have it, we would not be nearly as successful. She plays a big role in that.”

Students clustered in their teams around the pool, adding new 3-D printed parts to their ROVs and testing their speed in the water.

“Today they’re working on getting their ROVs to be neutrally buoyant, which means they don’t float, and they don’t sink,” McGinley said. “That way they can just hover there under the water while they’re working, so that takes some trial and error. Inevitably, there may be a propeller that falls off the first time — things happen that we have to work out the kinks with.”

Nearby, fifth grade students and high school students worked in the classroom at Sheridan Intermediate School on their technical design reports. SeaPerch participants are also judged on these reports, where they document the construction and engineering design process for their robots.

Fifth graders Abigail Martin and Jackson Knight said their first year participating in the program has been a learning experience.

“It’s been fun and interesting,” Martin said.

“It’s way different than I thought it was going to be,” Knight said. “I wasn’t thinking PVC pipe, I was thinking a full-on robot, but it’s still fun.”

Martin said her favorite part has been going to the pool and testing their robot, where they learned they needed to add more buoyancy. Knight said he has enjoyed working on the obstacle courses — during their last practice, they were able to use their ROV to open an “elevator” door on the underwater challenge course.

“Right now, I’m working on adding some graphs to our technical design report,” Knight said. “These are our speeds so far. Our fastest has been 11 seconds to go from one side of the pool and back.”

At another cluster of desks, fifth graders Kayden Bosley, Ryder Maines, Isabella Klinedinst and Adalyn Thornton collaborated on their ROV, whom they’ve named Scuba Steve. Bosley said they have had to make a few adjustments to the robot’s weight.

“We took off the lining so it would be lighter,” Bosley said. “Me and Ryder had a little trouble once we got to the far end of the pool because we couldn’t see through all the water, so we might need something bright at the front to help.”

“We’re trying to make it creative and unique,” Klinedinst said.

Across the hall, high school students worked together on their technical design reports.

Gavin McGinley, whose parents are Brad and Serena, and his teammate Callen Shaw have designed their robot from the ground up, including some 3-D printed parts.

“I’m thinking about making a foldable, 3-D printed hinge, but this is just our first thought,” McGinley said, gesturing towards their robot. “I made all these motor houses from scratch, so they’re all positioned in a really good spot.”

“They’re all of our own design,” Shaw said. “Everything here was built from scratch. We know there are all sorts of sites you can go to with plans, but we designed these.”

This is Shaw’s second year participating in SeaPerch, and McGinley’s fifth year.

“I like it because it’s fun,” McGinley said. “I get to hang out with my friends, and I like robotics.”

“I like being able to work as a team and prove our accomplishments that we made, overcoming challenges,” Shaw said. “We’re working on our report right now. I enjoy seeing how our ROV changes from where we started to where we end up, that’s one of my favorite parts about it.”

“It’s a little funky right now when it drives, but hopefully we’ll work all the kinks out,” McGinley said.

For more information about the Arkansas 4-H SeaPerch Challenge, visit 4h.uada.edu. To learn more about the SeaPerch program, visit seaperch.org/about. 

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on X and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on X at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on X at @AgInArk. 

Arkansas 4-H teams test robotics skills with submersible robots at SeaPerch Challenge

By Rebekah Hall
U of A System Division of Agriculture

LITTLE ROCK — For Arkansas 4-H’ers, the SeaPerch Challenge is an opportunity to practice their skills in STEM — science, technology, engineering and math — and work as a team to solve problems.

GRANT COUNTY MIGHTY DUCKS — At the 2023 SeaPerch Challenge on March 3, the Grant County Mighty Ducks took home first place in the open class division. The competition challenges students to design and build their own remotely operated vehicle, or ROV, and then steer the ROV through timed obstacle courses. From left to right: Garrett Key, Jaxson Andrews, Priyam Laxmi, Luke Douhit, Miley McGinley and Madi Andrews. (Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas photo.) 

On March 3, Arkansas 4-H members and students from across the state gathered at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock for the 2023 SeaPerch Challenge. At the competition, hosted by Arkansas 4-H and the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas, junior high and high school student teams steered remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs, through two underwater challenge courses. They also completed project workbooks and answered interview questions from judges.

Sixty-one teams from 12 of Arkansas’ 75 counties competed, as well as two teams from Grenada, Mississippi. The overall winning junior, senior and open teams will compete at the International SeaPerch Challenge at the University of Maryland on May 13.

• Winning Senior Team:

  • Turbo Flare 2.0 from Grant County: Gavin McGinley, Gracie McGinley, Riley Raymick and Callen Shaw, with coaches Serena and Brad McGinley

• Winning Junior Team:

  • Shock Waves from Howard County: Asher Howard, Ace McKinnon and Kody O’Brien, with coach Morgan Howard

• Winning Open Team:

  • The Mighty Ducks from Grant County: Jaxson Andrews, Madi Andrews, Luke Douhit, Garrett Key, Priyam Laxmi and Miley McGinley, with coaches Tina Melton and Brad McGinley

A list of all SeaPerch winners is available at 4h.uada.edu/programs/science/engineering-technology/seaperch.aspx.

Hope Bragg, extension instructor in 4-H youth development for the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture, said the SeaPerch competition “continues to see record growth” as the 4-H’ers’ engineering skills improve.

“Our 4-H youth amaze me with their skills in engineering as their robots become faster and more agile underwater,” Bragg said. “As part of the 4-H STEM program, SeaPerch allows our youth to broaden their experience with technology while realizing the real-world application of ideas they have.”

The 4-H “learning by doing” philosophy provides youth with opportunities for hands-on education in many subjects, including STEM. According to a 2018 study from the Pew Research Center, STEM employment has grown 79 percent since 1990. The SeaPerch Challenge incorporates basic engineering, design and science concepts, and it also challenges students to be creative and collaborative with their teammates, Bragg said.

To construct their submersible robots, teams used more than three dozen parts, including pieces of pool noodles, electrical tape, propellers, batteries, 12-volt motors and PVC pipe. Each team selected two members to steer the robot through two challenge courses. The “mission course,” designed to simulate space exploration, tested how well the ROVs could pick up and move objects. On the obstacle course, competitors navigated their robots through a series of plastic hoops floating at different angles.

Judges at each station evaluated teams’ performances and timed their progress through the courses. Teams were also scored on their technical reports and engineering notebooks for the project, which they submitted in advance. These notebooks contain documentation of the engineering and building process for the ROV.

A panel of judges interviewed teams about their design process, goals for the competition and each team member’s role in the robot’s construction. Judges rated teams based on their organization and creativity, their engineering and design process and presentation delivery during the interview.

Bragg said teams were encouraged to express their unique personalities by dressing up for their presentations to judges.

“I saw 4-H’ers dressed as sea monsters, wearing scuba gear and donning hula skirts,” Bragg said. “These kids made this year’s contest so much fun.”

Rob Roedel, director of corporate communications for the Electric Cooperatives of Arkansas, said the organization has partnered with the Cooperative Extension Service for decades in efforts to improve the quality of life for Arkansas.

“Working in partnership, the Cooperatives and Arkansas 4-H have increased SeaPerch youth participation by more than 600 percent in five years,” Roedel said. “The SeaPerch program provides an economically efficient STEM-based learning opportunity for students and 4-H members. The program encourages problem-solving, teamwork, creativity, hands-on learning and much more.

“These are skills that are critical in today’s workplace and must be learned, and they can’t all be taught in a classroom,” he said.

For more information about the Arkansas 4-H SeaPerch Challenge, visit 4h.uada.edu. To learn more about the SeaPerch program, visit seaperch.org/about.  

To learn about extension programs in Arkansas, contact your local Cooperative Extension Service agent or visit www.uaex.uada.edu. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram at @AR_Extension. To learn more about Division of Agriculture research, visit the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station website: https://aaes.uada.edu. Follow on Twitter at @ArkAgResearch. To learn more about the Division of Agriculture, visit https://uada.edu/. Follow us on Twitter at @AgInArk.