May 16, 2024 By Amy Fauth 5 min read

Middle schoolers from four Greene County school districts were given the opportunity to build, code, fly and even make drones dance Wednesday as part of Rural Wings 2024, an inaugural drone showcase and competition at EQT Rec Center in Waynesburg.

A collaboration between the school districts, For The Win (FTW) Robotics, Innovation Institute 4 Tomorrow and the EdVenture Group Inc., Rural Wings was funded by EQT Foundation with additional support from Remake Learning Days.

FTW Robotics is home to Hopper, a drone designed to revolutionize STEM and computer science education through its Build Fly Code learning platform, which was used Wednesday.

It all started when West Greene’s academic director Eric Gaydos met Tim Heffernen, CEO of FTW Robotics, at a conference in New Orleans. Looking to build on the school district’s successful eSports competition, Gaydos hoped it would help to create sustainable learning opportunities by introducing innovative ideas like drone programming to traditionally rural schools.

However, even Gaydos admits the event surpassed anything he could’ve envisioned.

“This is so far beyond what we imagined when we thought of having a competition,” said Gaydos.

Amber Ravenscroft, Director of Innovation at The EdVenture Group, a national nonprofit organization committed to creating solutions to educational challenges through innovation consulting, credited the faculty and students with having the idea take flight.

“The continued collaboration and forward thinking, innovation mindsets of Greene County’s school districts demonstrate a strong commitment to preparing a future ready workforce,” she said. “We are grateful for the continued partnership with the EQT Foundation and Greene County’s districts.”

At the showcase, students from West Greene, Waynesburg Central, Southeastern Greene and Jefferson-Morgan rotated through four stations, including Ground Control, Flight School, Drone Relay and Drone Show, honing their innovation skills, ability to work as a team and explore careers that before they may not have believed were open to them. And of course, to add to the excitement, teams from the school districts competed against one another.

Ground Control station was all about learning how to land a drone accurately. Students worked in teams of two with one student piloting and the other directing the pilot to blindly land the drone on a mark. If they were successful, they scored points, which would be transformed into seconds that they could take off of their Drone Relay score for the competition.

“Flight School was not only to get the drones calibrated correctly, but for students to calibrate themselves,” said Gaydos.

Flight School station was where students learned and perfected all the moves they needed to navigate the Drone Relay station. The Drone Show dealt with coding the drones to dance to the beat of music, like Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” and “California Girls,” by Katy Perry.

One of the things Gaydos enjoyed seeing was how well the students worked as a team. Although adult helpers were there to assist with the technology, the students worked together, used their critical thinking and figured it all out for themselves.

Tira Gonzalez, an eighth-grader from West Greene, conquered the relay course fairly quickly.

“It took a bit, but I got used to the controls,” she added.

The winners of the competition were Central Greene Team C, first place; West Greene Team B, second place; Jefferson Morgan Team E, third place, and Mapletown Team D, fourth place.

The competition began long before students arrived at EQT Rec Center. The classrooms were furnished with disassembled drones to test if students could navigate technology as effortlessly as they could post a video to the Tik Tok social media platform. The students were responsible for learning the intricacies required to build, fly and code the latest drone technology from FTW.

After spending weeks with the technology in the classroom, students put what they learned to the test Wednesday.

Teams competed against each other in a timed competition. The winning teams were presented with plaques made by STEM students at West Greene’s Maker Space. In addition, they made stickers all the students could take with them.

The drone showcase and competition was unique for Greene County, so much so that it attracted attention from a number of people, including Greene County Commissioner Jared Edgreen.

“This is amazing,” said Edgreen, who admitted to not having cellphone technology when he was their age. “It has accelerated to a point … look where we are now?”

Carolyn Sweeney, a teacher from Mapletown Junior/Senior High School, was impressed by the unlimited career opportunities that the technology opens up for her students.

“They’ve been very excited about this,” said Sweeney.

High-paying, fulfilling and in-demand jobs for the school’s future graduates is the goal for these middle schoolers as they learn new skills, which, without these types of partnerships, the districts wouldn’t be able to deliver.

“Empowering middle schoolers with drone programming not only cultivates technological literacy but also fosters creativity, problem-solving and critical thinking,” said Gaydos. “It’s not just about flying high; it’s about lifting their imaginations to new heights.

“We hope to build further interest in both drones and aviation because of the definitive workforce need,” he added.

While the students and school districts benefit from these partnerships, the technology companies get something valuable in return.

According to Heffernen, the showcase and competition serves as a bonafide test group for his company as they work to improve the products they make. The students help provide feedback to the company with a real world test like Rural Wings 2024.

“Have fun. You’re not in school for the day. It’s spring. Enjoy,” he told students at the beginning of the event.