Over the past nine months, we have faced numerous challenges in our STEM work. Flexibility is essential in any STEM field, and this we’ve learned. Ideas come and go quickly, and we often spend hours on an idea only to discard it and start over. This has directly affected our reaction to 

obstacles, thus improving our method of moving past. We've grown from being upset with changes and thrown off by hardships to almost expecting them and being able to move on from them much quicker. Often we take some time to gather ideas and opinions before moving forward in production. Seeking other opinions has been most helpful in problem-solving; Having a different point of view has been incredibly beneficial in the production of our submarine.

Other opinions and points of view have been very beneficial in the development of our ROV. This communication, both from people on and off our team, has been a prevalent method in our process. It can at times be frustrating to explain your thought process to someone, but from the beginning to the end of our time together we've undoubtedly improved with communicating. Additionally, we make it a point to make sure everyone is aware when we make a large change in design, that way our other members can point out any issue they see with the new idea. Communication has been and continues to be, crucial in any team dynamic.

Communication, understanding, compassion, and patience have been essential in our team dynamic since the beginning. It’s important to understand when to step in and when to let your teammate work. Then, it’s important to offer help meaningfully when your teammate asks. We’ve also been understanding with our team members that it is frustrating to have an idea not work, so we’ve compassionate when a problem arises and allow ample breaks. Furthermore, we’ve found it beneficial to not have one person leading but rather choose to trust individual members to accomplish their tasks, assigned based on their skills and preferences.

We would like to thank the following students for their efforts to help with the Mate ROV project despite not being part of the team:
• Cohnor Hall
• Lyric Ross
• Charles Lee
• Ally DeYoung
• Garret Howland
• Liam Hansen.
We would also like to thank Mr. Mike Kirschner and Mr. Karl DeWitt for providing us with inspiration and information that was invaluable to building our submersible. Finally, we would like to thank the Rudyard Pool for allowing us to use their facilities, SME Prime for providing us with printers, Rudyard Area Schools for funding our activities, and MATE for the opportunity to compete.