Seapower - March 2012

dard design. The cadets can take what is in the kit and build the Perch however they want.

“As long as that thing can steam
through a circle that’s 2 feet in
diameter and 2 feet across, that’s it,
how they get it to do that is up to
them,” Nyland said. “In talking
with ONR, this is in the junior
high schools and there are a lot of
younger kids participating — 9,
10, 11 years old. It’s been mostly
Sea Cadets units that have signed
up so far. I think, in the next
round, we will play up the
Leaguers and try to get them
involved more.”
The challenge at the present
time is integrating the SeaPerch
program into the busy drill sched-
ules Sea Cadets and Navy League
Cadets already have. SeaPerch
builds can be time-consuming, tak-
ing up to a full day or more to com-
plete if done all at once. Given that,
units either can split the builds up
into increments over several drill
weekends or conduct them when
their schedules are not so crowded
with other obligations.

“This doesn’t replace anything
we’re doing,” Nyland said. “It’s just
one more thing that we’ve added to
the training venue, particularly
when they are home and not at
summer training. It gives them
something to do at the drills that is
new and exciting.”
After the Perch have been built,
they can be used and modified for
any number of activities that rein-
force the STEM principles. With a
little bit of maintenance, the vehicles can have a shelf
life of three years or more.

“You don’t just build them and let them sit around,”
Bunting said. “There are lesson plans about propul-
sion, buoyancy, those kinds of things, that the cadets
can use the Perch for and practice with.”
And once the program catches on among more Sea
Cadet units, there can be competitions as well, he said,
especially if two or several nearby units have conduct-
ed Perch builds.

But for now, the emphasis is on incorporating the SeaPerch program and building on the initial momentum.

MARLENE STEVENS
A group of 60 adults took part in the November SeaPerch training session in
Newport. They will instruct Sea Cadets and Navy League Cadets during their
SeaPerch builds. Another 20 adults received training in October in San Diego.

MARLENE STEVENS
Lt. Cmdr. Luke Clyburn, NSCC, and Lt. Kathy Trax, NSCC, with the Sea Cadets’
Great Lakes Division in Michigan, solder components for the remote control box that
will be used to power and steer their SeaPerch during the Newport training session.

“What’s next will be ensuring that those who have the Perch are into the build process, and I think that will happen automatically because they can’t wait to get their hands on it,” Nyland said. “Then we would move to the next train-the-trainer session in May or June and a follow-up in the fall.