Do-It-Yourself Pontoon Explorers
As collaborators in the outreach efforts of MIT Media Lab’s Open Ocean initiative, we spearheaded the learning design elements of Do-It-Yourself (DIY) Pontoon Explorers. These vessels are customizable pontoon ROVs intended for open exploration of local water bodies. The Explorers were playtested with a cohort of high school students as part of the National Geographic Student Expeditions. We hosted a series of workshops at MIT Sea Grant where students developed customized payloads for their pontoons. Working collaboratively, they defined “mission objectives” for their vessel, and built sensors for water monitoring, tested in the tanks on-site.
