gmh Today, summer 2024 issue, “Creativity and Critical Thinking: Students Build ROVs on Catalina Island,” by Lisa Catterall.
Mount Madonna School (MMS) began a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) program for its tenth grade oceanography class a decade ago in collaboration with the University of Southern California (USC) Dornsife Wrigley Marine Science Center on Catalina Island. The Wrigley Center is a research extension of USC, and was one of the first lab facilities in the world to provide not only seawater circulation directly through all laboratories, but to maintain an intact natural kelp forest ecosystem on site. For a time, this organization hosted MMS students and faculty and co-created the oceanography curriculum that is currently in use for the MMS Catalina learning journey.
As the program evolved through the pandemic, MMS committed to keeping the science curriculum intact by investing in all the equipment needed to deliver 10 hands-on field science and laboratory activities that used to involve borrowing USC’s equipment. One of the jewels of this program is the ROV competition. Read more
