Drone Labs to Promote Interest in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)
Asad Yousuf, Mohamad Mustafa, Mir Hayder, Kisha Cunningham, Noel Thomas · 2020
Abstract This paper describes the development, implementation of STEM activities that promote the interest of High School students to pursue STEM education in college. The five-week program is designed to introduce students to Robotics and critical thinking. The development and implementation of the summer program is supported by the grants funded by the US Army and the Robert Noyce grant funded by NSF. Educators are always looking for approaches to integrate exciting hands-on activities in teaching and learning to engage and build interest of High School students in STEM disciplines. Participation of High School students in land robotics has attracted many students to choose STEM education and careers. Technological advancements have introduced a new kind of flying robot called a Drone, which is an unmanned aircraft. The drone may be remotely controlled or can fly autonomously through software controlled flight plans along with the embedded microcontroller chip working in conjunction with onboard sensors and GPS receiver. Recently, flying robots has further enriched the interest of students in STEM disciplines which includes electronics, control, fabrication, mathematics, critical thinking, and computer programming. This paper presents the results of a five-week summer program for high school students. The participants of the program were 15 underrepresented students from rural school districts. During the five-week period, students were assigned several activities to program quadcopter drone by using the software called scratch developed by Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). This paper will also discuss the student group projects presented on the last day of the summer session and performance based on attainment of learning outcomes are evaluated by the faculty members. Some the items that were evaluated during the labs were how to follow Federal Aviation Administration Part 107 Regulations including pilot certification and drone safety, drone system components, aerodynamics, programming, flight preparation and planning and lastly summary reporting. In addition, the paper will also present the results of the survey given to the participants to determine the effectiveness of the five-week summer program