Sea Air and Land Challenge – Ohio

Welcome to the Sea Air and Land Challenge, a STEM initiative to introduce high school students to engineering through the use of robotics.

School registration is open for the Ohio Sea Air and Land Challenge. This 12-16 week introduction to engineering STEM initiative culminates on Challenge Day, Friday, May 9th, 2025, at Buckeye Local High School in Rayland, OH.

True to the program’s name, teams of students may choose to design and build submersibles to maneuver underwater in the Sea Challenge, drones to fly in the Air Challenge or land rovers to carry out a ground-based operation in the Land Challenge. Nicknamed the SeAL Challenge, in this fun Department of Defense (DoD) sponsored program, teams design unmanned vehicles and payloads. Each team and their advisor/educator is paired with a volunteer engineering mentor to guide them through the process. The robotic systems are then used to compete on Challenge Day in missions that mimic those encountered by the military or first responders.

The objectives of this program are (1) to provide students with an opportunity to tackle a difficult engineering project while in high school, (2) to provide students with an awareness of the tremendous technical careers in or supporting the DoD and armed forces, and (3) to help educators and administrators implement a successful STEM program into their schools even given time, budget or resource constraints. The SeAL Challenge can be presented to the students in class, as a club or as an after-school activity. An optional no-cost, one-semester curriculum is available.

For more information, please contact the Sea Air Land Group ([email protected]) or the eastern Ohio Regional Coordinator, Jeff Merrill ([email protected]), or visit the Sea Air and Land Challenge website at http://seaairland.psu.edu/. If you are ready to register, sign up at http://seaairland.psu.edu/register/ by February 28th.