New York teachers are taking Cornell research on snail-inspired robots back to their classrooms, using build-it-yourself machines to teach students about microplastics, biomimicry, engineering and pollution in the state's waterways.
The program, now in its second year, brought 43 teachers to two all-day workshops this summer at Cornell and in New York City. Cornell researchers and New York Sea Grant staff gave participants lesson plans, hands-on materials and components for robots that pull in surface water and filter out small plastic particles.
The workshops are built around research led by Sunny Jung, a professor of biological and environmental engineering in Cornell's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences. Jung studied how aquatic snails use an undulating motion to draw particles from distances up to 10 times their body length without pulling in a large volume of water.
That movement inspired a robotic system named Mollusca. Teachers assembled the machines from wires, circuit boards, motors and 3D-printed parts, then tested them in a small pool filled with plastic pellets known as nurdles.
Research moves from the lab to schools
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's Marine Debris Program funded development of the Mollusca concept in 2024. Cornell researchers have since built three 12-by-12-inch prototypes that have logged about 80 hours of swimming in a laboratory pool.
Kirstin Petersen, an associate professor of electrical and computer engineering at Cornell, and her students are studying whether groups of the robots could create water flows that improve microplastics collection. Princeton University researcher Michelle DiBenedetto is examining performance under different wave conditions, while Maha Haji at the University of Michigan is working on larger designs for possible use in the Great Lakes.
Petersen said the system may be particularly useful for sampling water and learning where microplastics accumulate, even if it is not a complete solution for removing the particles from oceans and lakes.
New York Sea Grant staff translated the research into lessons that can be adapted for students of different ages. The first two-day workshop reached 25 teachers in July 2025. This year's participants also learned about microplastics in New York waterways, existing collection technologies and recent developments in the Mollusca research.
Teachers report strong student engagement
Emily Colletta, who leads a gifted and talented program at North Tonawanda Intermediate School, developed a three-month unit for sixth graders around the Great Lakes and the Mollusca project. Students studied the lakes' geography, climate change, microplastics, biomimicry and existing trash-capture systems before building the robots.
Students tested their machines, recorded observations and used 3D printing to make modifications. Colletta said the project felt immediate because students could find microplastics in classroom dust and nurdles along the nearby Niagara River.
Taryn Matteson used the materials with Advanced Placement Biology students at Tapestry Charter High School in Buffalo. Her students paired the Mollusca work with lessons about LittaTraps, which collect trash in storm drains, allowing them to study pollution at both the macro and micro scale. Some students used their plastic-capture designs in college scholarship applications, and an art class turned recovered trash into an art project.
Program's future is uncertain
Nate Drag, a New York Sea Grant Great Lakes literacy specialist, runs the workshops and converts technical research into classroom activities. He said working with teachers allows the project to reach far more students than a short public outreach event.
Drag said organizers hope teachers remain connected during the school year and continue sharing resources. However, funding cuts have stalled original plans for a third year of workshops.
Researchers and educators said the project still gives teachers and students experience with robotics, coding and interdisciplinary problem-solving that can carry into other environmental and engineering work.
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