Let’s Fly!
Every kid looks up at the sky and dreams of being able to fly with the birds. Only after flapping their arms fruitlessly for a minute or two do they realize that, alas, kids can’t fly.
NOT SO FAST!
Last weekend kids learned that they could fly at the Rush County ‘Tech Fest’ Drone Rodeo! The event was held in the basketball gymnasium of the Rush County Boys & Girls Club. 1st Maker Space constructed a drone ‘cage’ built with PVC pipe and bird netting – complete with take-off and landing platforms and hula hoop obstacles to fly through. The mammoth 10’ x 10’ x 10’ cage attracted lots of attention and wanna-be drone pilots (of all ages!) anxious to fly a drone using a controller with two joysticks. View this video of the event in action here.
Drone Rodeo Station @ Tech Fest
Drone Cage built out of PVC Pipe and bird netting, complete with take-off and landing platforms and hula hoop obstacles to fly through.
This can easily be created with household materials for a classroom drone experiment!
Local FFA members assisted with training, retrieving drones caught in the netting and returning grounded drones back to one of the four launch platforms. One FFA member demonstrated her flying skill by sinking baskets with her drone!
These RoboLink CoDrone Mini drones are able to fly for a few minutes before their battery needs to be recharged. Our new line of Tello drones fly longer and have a camera that sends video back to a WiFi connected tablet or smartphone which can also be used as a controller. Contact us for a custom quote for these drones today if interested in adopting this technology.
The programmability features of both inspire students to learn how to code. Students have the ability to design a flight path using block or text based programming with Scratch, Blockly or Python. Programming take-off, pitch, yaw, speed and landing maneuvers involves critical thinking, planning and a lot of trial and error. Mastering the fundamentals of flight can be challenging, but it can also be lots of fun! There are lots of connections to real-world problem solving and academic content.
The Rush County group that produced this event hopes to inspire everyone in their county to see technology as a means to ‘Catch Up, Keep Up and Move Up!’ in an increasingly technology-centric world. This applies especially to youth. The 1st Maker Space Drone Rodeo was one exhibit that proved to everyone that keeping up with technology – and learning how to fly – can be educational and fun!
