14 November 2008 [Video] ScubaDooba Doo champions first Antarctic swim!

Journal Entry

Two big events today!

One: ScubaDooba Doo, which is the robot 8th graders at Rye Junior High built performed flawlessly on its first Antarctic adventure! I am so proud of all the students that worked so hard to make it work - CONGRATUATIONS! Your robot swims, maneuvers, sends video out, and has a working light system in the frigid Antarctica waters! It sent Fantastic video clips back to the surface! We even flew the flag designed by Jiselle off the back! Check out the underwater footage! Everyone in the group was impressed with your efforts - they all send a big "congrats" and were VERY impressed! I wish you could have heard the cheers from everyone - it was so fun to see how enthusiastic everyone here was about this robot. How exciting!

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ScubaDooba Doo and the flag designed by RJH student

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ScubaDooba Doo heads for deeper water!

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Two: I went diving at a wonderful location. The surface of the ice near the dive hut and hole looked like a Weddell Seal nursery; mothers and pups were laying all around. They were yawning, "barking" at each other, grumbling, and nuzzling. It was a wonderful site.

Underwater, they are quite possibly the most graceful thing I have ever seen; they are magnificent to watch! If you watch closely in the video, you can even see one of the mothers "teeth scraping" the side of the hole. They do this in order to keep the ice open so they can haul out. The young pups were learning a lot today! The mothers seemed to say to the pups: "do not swim like those humans - they don't swim properly!"

What an experience!