Crowds of students lined the pool at the Lehi Legacy Center on Wednesday as they took part in the 2014 Utah Underwater Robotics Competition hosted by BYU’s Splash Lab on Wednesday.

Teams deployed remotely-operated underwater vehicles they built themselves and attempted to complete four tasks in ten minutes as outlined in their mission overviews. The mission was a simulation of a potential real-life research project in which a team would locate an underwater structure in Jordanelle Reservoir, open one of its doors, deploy a sensor and collect samples before returning to the surface.

A number of the teams were made up of students from a sixth-grade advanced learning lab class at Westfield Elementary in Alpine. Under the direction of their teacher Karre Nevarez, the students began work in February and, with the help of BYU students that visited weekly, built and tested their submersibles in and out of the classroom. All while learning about and applying a variety of STEM-related concepts including electronics, buoyancy, propulsion, hydrostatic pressure and water proofing.

“This gets the kids to relate [their work] to real life and understand that these are future careers,” said Nevarez after the competition.

This was her students’ first time at the competition and Nevarez was happy to see their smiles and excitement after putting in so much hard work, even staying late at an outdoor pool to continue adjusting their vehicles and to practice piloting them in sometimes cold conditions.

“What we discover is more important than what we win,” she said.