By: Kevin Bunch | Roseville - Eastpointe Eastsider | Published November 11, 2015


ROSEVILLE — Starting in October, Roseville High School students have been offered a new after-school club dedicated to engineering, science and technology.

Dubbed the Roseville Engineering, Science and Technology club, or REST, the group has had about 35 kids sign up through three weeks to help build a remote-controlled car and underwater remotely operated vehicle, or ROV. Co-founder and science teacher Robert Smitka said the response has been “outstanding.”

“The school was lacking a lot of tech- and science-based clubs, and that’s where a lot of future jobs are going to be,” Smitka said. “So we thought we’d put together this club and see what response we’d get from students.”

Smitka said he and fellow science teacher Bethany Allen came up with the idea for the club over the summer while attending a workshop on bringing greater science, technology, engineering and math education to high schools and beyond.

As part of the workshop, the pair had to design and build their own ROV and learn how to teach students to construct their own, he said.

“We enjoyed it and thought it was a good idea to bring back to students,” Smitka said.

Allen said they also had to take the ROV they built and test it against the vehicles designed and built by the other teachers — a challenge that students will reproduce in the spring.

Square One Network, which sponsored the workshop, is working with REST so students can participate in a pair of “innovative vehicle design,” or IVD, engineering challenges. The first requires students to re-engineer a remote-controlled car so they can explore how changes in tires, batteries, engines and other parts impact performance.

The second challenge sees students designing and building their own ROV submarine, which is controlled by a tether. Both challenges culminate in competitions with other districts; the submarine competition is in March, while the remote-controlled car competition is in May.

“We’re not allowed to touch the vehicles in any way,” Allen said. “They do it — from drawing out the designs to the final product to racing through the track or pool. It’s all up to them to design, build and modify the vehicle, and then race it.”

Allen said there is a presentation component to the program, so not only do the students have to choose who will directly control the vehicle at the competitions, but they also are judged on how well they present their design and the decisions that went into it.

The students in the Roseville club have split into two groups, each working on one of the challenges, Allen said. Students can “dip their fingers” into what the other group is doing, but ultimately each student needs to pick a project to focus on, she said. Students were able to choose which group they wanted to join.

Square One Executive Director Karl Klimek said they want to build and fund relevant learning opportunities in the science, technology, engineering and math — or STEM — fields for students and teachers.

“By incorporating powerful STEM experiences in a fun, student-led project like the IVD challenge, we are supporting the future talent development related to the STEM fields,” Klimek said in a statement.

Smitka said Square One has provided the club with a small grant to get started, though they need to get additional funds to be competitive. He said the club is trying to get corporate sponsorship or otherwise raise money from local organizations and individuals. The club has set up a GoFundMe account at www.gofundme.com/REST_RHS.

“The grant is focused on the mini IVD, or R/C cars, but we’re looking for donations to get the rest of the parts, because a lot of this has to be self-funded,” Smitka said.

Allen said those financial constraints are part of the design process. Each group has to keep track of the finances available to them to purchase parts for the vehicles.

“Should they spend more to buy a better product, or is the cheaper one good enough?” she said. “They have to do cost analysis. There is quite a bit more, other than just engineering.”

Even if their financial resources are constrained, Smitka said, the students seem to be interested in the subject matter. He believes this interest comes from the hands-on, interactive methodology that comes with building and testing designs.

High school junior Rasul Mahones said in a press release from the school district that the engineering focus of the club is what made him interested in the first place.

“All through my childhood I enjoyed making things like toy cars and toy motors, and then I got interested in electronics, so I thought programming an ROV would be cool,” Mahones said in the release.

The club currently meets each Wednesday from 3 to 4 p.m. at Roseville High School.