Summary
Students will engage in the basic design of Alvin using a cardboard box.
Learning Objectives
Students will be able to:
Design and/or build a model ROV using cardboard
State 3 capabilities that an ROV would need at the bottom of the ocean.
Make a “control panel” of commands a pilot would use to control an ROV
Materials
Cardboard box large enough for an elementary student to fit inside (like an appliance box)
Additional cardboard
Box cutter
Packing tape
String
Markers, colored pencils or crayons
Optional: Plastic wrap or something you can see through for “windows”
Optional: Butcher paper
Background encourages student exploration of submersibles, ROVs, AUVs, and the robotic arms included on these vessels. It also shows that scientists don’t have all of the answers, but rather find things they can’t explain and use what they know to design experiments to understand what they have found.
What to do
**All cutting should be completed by the teacher and the box cutter secured in a safe place. **
1. Tape one end of the box (as if you were going to ship it)
2. Optional: Tape the flaps open on the other end (as in the figure on the right)

3. Turn the box over (so that the opening is down) and cut a way to enter the box (door or opening on one face of the box).
Students can “enter” Alvin through this opening or by putting the box over them.
4. Cut small (8 or 10 square inches) windows on either side of the box for windows.
5. Optional : Cover the windows with plastic wrap or something else you can see through. And cover the rest of the body with butcher paper.
6. Cut out long (2.5 ft x 4 in) pieces of cardboard out of the spare cardboard.
7. Punch a hole in one end of the pieces and tape the other end to the ROV body.
8. Thread the string as in the picture to the right through the arms of your
ROV. You will need to poke holes in several places as well as bend the cardboard to make joints. You may need to “thread” the string through the holes by taping it to the end of a pencil and using the pencil as a kind of needle. Depending on the level of your students, you may want to have them design the arms (where the joints should go, where the string should be threaded, etc.)
9. Thread the string through the body of the ROV as in the above photo so that students can sit on the inside of “Alvin” and control the arms by pulling on the string.

10. Discuss with the students why you would want arms on your ROV that you could manipulate. (So you could gather the samples and the data that you want from the ocean floor.
They are your “arms” down in the deep ocean so you want them to do what your arms can do.)
11. Discuss what other capabilities an ROV should have. (Examples: pinching fingers to pick up samples, rotating arms and wrists for oddly positioned samples, full mobility - forward and backward, left and right, shoulders so that you can put your samples into baskets underneath the
ROV, take pictures/video, collect water samples using a vacuum, use a thermometer, etc.) You can find more about what the ROV JASON II can do here and what Alvin can do here .
12. Using markers, colored pencils or crayons, have the students make a “control panel” that a pilot would use to control Alvin or JASON.
This project could be reduced in size to a shoe box with teacher’s still making cuts in the box for the moveable parts.