Students at the New London Science and Technology Magnet High School were tasked by the Coast Guard with several missions last Thursday.

In just one day, they had to "catch a drug runner and bring him to jail," "land a helicopter on a boat," and even "clean up an oil spill."

It wasn't an impossible mission. They were able to simulate these scenarios and others with boats they built as part of a program hosted by the U.S. Coast Guard Academy.

Academy Robotics on the Water (AROW) is a Coast Guard-based program that strives to get students involved and interested in science, technology, engineering and math, by providing a hands-on experience. AROW gives students ideas about what the Coast Guard actually does.

Coast Guard Lt. Sam Cheung worked with students March 17 while they spent several hours building their boats and then raced them.

"We basically give them a box with some parts and some directions and the hope is that they follow the directions and work together," Cheung said. "Their robots can actually do some of the simulative ideas of some of the Coast Guard missions like search and rescue."

AROW travels around the country to different schools hoping to get students involved in the program.

Sophomores from Denise Swiatek's honor's biology class were randomly split into teams and each team competed with their robotic craft.

"We hope that the exposure to the academy and all of these different areas will open up a door for them," Swiatek said.

In each of these competitions, teams got points for what they accomplished. In one of the missions, floating orange ping pong balls represented a large oil spill and students used a controller to navigate their boat to the area, pick up as many balls as they could, and release them into a "recycling area." Each ball that was successfully dropped into the recycling area was 20 points.

Other missions included picking up a drug runner and putting him into the jail area, rescuing survivors that fell off a boat, moving red and green buoys into their marked places, landing a helicopter on the boat, as well as a speed competition.

Jennifer Blanchette, 15, and Miranda Kinery, 16 were on Team Alligator.

"We're putting in so much effort and whether we succeed or not, we put in a lot of effort and I'm hoping it works," Blanchette said.

Kinery participated in Project Spill, which is another program hosted by the U.S. Coast Guard, and is now thinking of attending the academy.

"You basically just go and you have a dinner and then you take courses at the Coast Guard and you sit in and you actually see what the courses are like," Kinery said. "I liked it a lot. I thought it was a good option."

All of the students that participated in the event took home T-shirts. First place was awarded to Team Bravo. They received Under Armour sweatshirts and duffle bags. Second- and third-place winners also took home prizes.