If you want to see just how competitive teachers can be, divide a group of them into teams and ask them to build robots.

Trash talk, pranks and cheers were the order of the day at a robotics workshop for teachers in the Bermuda Union of Teachers at BIOS.

The group built aquatic remotely-operated vehicles using PVC piping, styrofoam and a car battery.

As one ROV slipped into the water and bobbed to the surface there were cheers from most of its inventors.

One lone irritated voice said: “It is supposed to be neutrally buoyant, you goofballs! It’s not supposed to float; it’s supposed to sit just below the water.”

Later the same group complained bitterly that a teacher in another group had dismantled their battery to gain an advantage.

“I didn’t,” the teacher said, frantically fiddling with the battery to get it going again and absolve himself.

The aim of the workshop was to help teachers incorporate robotics into the classroom in some way, and drum up participation in a BIOS competition planned for March.

“It has been hilarious,” said BIOS education officer JP Skinner. “It is amazing how competitive these teachers are. If the teachers are anything to go by, the students are really going to love working with robots.”

The teachers were given a lunch break, but many of them snuck back in early to get an advantage over the competing teams.

They were mainly science and design and technology teachers, with a few English teachers thrown into the mix.

Joy Todd of Dame Marjorie Bean Academy said there were lessons she could take back to her classroom, although she might have to simplify them a bit for students with learning challenges.

“I was thinking we could talk about things that sink and float,” she said. “For my students who are able to hold things, they can drop things into the water to see if they sink or float.”

Yvonne Bean, a science teacher at TN Tatem Middle School, said she had built a motor before, but never a robot.

“I was really excited to take this workshop,” she said. “This is something new. The most challenging thing about today’s exercise has been to get the perfect buoyancy and design so that the ROV will manoeuvre in the water without tilting either way.

“We have some good brains on our team. We didn’t do any measurements like some of the other teams, it was just total trial and error for us. Some of my students will definitely be entering the competition in March.”

Said Melanie Burrows, a science teacher at CedarBridge Academy: “I think my students will be excited to try this. I think they will have a good time. So many of my students are hands-on, and do well with activities like this.”

The workshop is part of BIOS’ plan to develop an underwater robotics design and engineering programme in Bermuda’s schools. BIOS will distribute ROV kits to each middle school class, and throughout its summer camps, before the ROV design competition at the National Sports Centre pool next March.

The competition was originally designed for M2 students, but given the level of enthusiasm from primary and secondary school teachers during the workshop, BIOS is considering opening it up to other age groups.

The program will be the key feature and topic of the HSBC Explorer Program in the coming year.

•For more information contact BIOS at 297-1880 or e-mail jp.skinner@bios.edu.