Several dozen of Bermuda’s upper elementary and middle school teachers participated in a professional development workshop over the recent half-term break, which ran from February 14 to 18 for the island’s public schools. The workshops aimed to provide educators with tangible examples of how biodiversity data collected by BIOS from the deep sea in and around Bermuda are being used to support the development of marine protected areas (MPAs) around the island as part of the Bermuda Ocean Prosperity Programme (BOPP). As BIOS is one of the three partnering organizations in BOPP, along with the Waitt Institute and the Government of Bermuda, the collaboration was a natural fit and an opportunity for BIOS to share how the work of its scientists is being leveraged in broader decision-making efforts.

They came with robots in their arms and dreams of undersea victories. On April 30, more than 100 Bermudian students met at the National Sports Centre pool to compete in the island’s second annual Mid Atlantic Robotics IN Education (MARINE) underwater robotics challenge, with lead donor support from HSBC.

Twenty-eight teams from nine schools and educational organizations will converge on the National Sports Centre on Saturday, April 30, for the 2016 MATE Bermuda Regional ROV Challenge. The program, hosted by BIOS, is part of the Mid Atlantic Robotics IN Education Program (MARINE), with lead donor support from HSBC.

Building on two years of successful programs within Bermuda’s schools, including professional development workshops for teachers and an annual design and piloting challenge for students, the BIOS Mid-Atlantic Robotics IN Education (MARINE) initiative recently announced a new partnership with the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute (BUEI).

When Quincy Paynter, deputy principal at The Berkeley Institute—a public senior school in Bermuda—wanted to provide his students with team-building experiences that would also highlight key scientific concepts related to electives offered at his school, he knew where to turn: the BIOS Education Department.

Primary and secondary students at Warwick Academy, a private school in Bermuda, now have the opportunity to participate in ongoing scientific research thanks to a partnership between BIOS, the school, and the Living Reefs Foundation (LRF), a Bermuda-based non-profit organization. The project is one of the first at the Academy’s newly-constructed waterfront Marine Science Center, allowing students to learn valuable laboratory skills and play a role in restoring coral reefs in Castle Harbor that were damaged by the development of the airport in the 1950s.

This summer, there is a new addition to BIOS: a 20-foot (6 meter) x 4-foot (1.2 meter) above-ground pool, dubbed the Underwater Robotics Innovation Test Pool. The pool is serving as a testing facility this summer for underwater robots, also known as remotely operated vehicles (or ROVs), as part of BIOS’s Mid-Atlantic Robotics IN Education (MARINE) program which is sponsored by RenaissanceRe.

Twenty-five teams from 12 Bermuda schools and educational organizations will converge on the National Sports Centre on Saturday, April 22, for the 2017 MATE Bermuda Regional Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Challenge. The program, hosted by BIOS, is part of the Mid-Atlantic Robotics IN Education Program (MARINE), with lead donor support from HSBC.

The pool at the National Sports Centre hosts numerous aquatic competitions throughout the year, but perhaps none as unique as the MATE Bermuda Regional Challenge. The annual challenge, organized by BIOS’s Ocean Academy and supported by lead donor HSBC, is the culmination of months of work by teams of students on the design, construction, and operation of remotely operated vehicles, or ROVs. The challenge is also the final event in the BIOS Mid-Atlantic Robotics IN Education (MARINE) program, which uses a focus on marine robotics to bring science and technology curricula into classrooms around the island.

Registration opened Oct. 1 for middle school team participation in the popular Remotely Operated Vehicle (ROV) Challenge, sponsored by the Mid Atlantic Robotics IN Education (MARINE) program. This year’s program, hosted by BIOS, will become a regional partner with the Marine Advanced Technology Education Center (MATE), which challenges students to apply physics, math, electronics, and engineering lessons to the marine environment.