The Champion Local School District has joined the growing Trumbull County Drone Racing League this school year! Offered through a partnership with the Trumbull County Educational Service Center, the league follows the Drones in School educational program, which provides students a unique opportunity to develop aeronautic, engineering, project management, entrepreneurship, graphic design, and marketing skills. “As an educator, I embrace opportunities to combine traditional knowledge with new, current-day technology,” says CHS drone racing team advisor and science teacher Terri Hanton. “This entire experience will allow these students to not only explore STEM [science, technology, engineering, and math] fields through hands-on experience, but it will also help cultivate teamwork, problem-solving, and adaptability. It’s exciting to see an initiative that encourages a passion for learning and innovation. This work could shape the future for some of our students!”
Drones in Schools teams consist of two to six students who fill six job roles - project manager, graphic designer, manufacturing engineer, design engineer, marketing coordinator, and drone technician. Each role is responsible for a specific component relevant to the racing competition. In addition to learning how to fly the drone itself and competing in face-to-face and virtual races, team members also have to build/improve two racing drones, and create a team display, portfolio, and marketing video.
Champion High School team members meet a couple of times a week to work with the equipment, test software and controllers, and design and 3D-print new drone models. “I wanted to be part of the team because the concept was interesting to me,” says CHS Senior Dylan Likens. “It’s a lot of work to learn how to correctly fly and operate the drone and then to come up with the additional components, but it’s been fun and I’m really looking forward to competing.”
The CHS Flashes Drone Team will join nearly a dozen other schools from Trumbull County for an in-person competition hosted by the Trumbull County Educational Service Center later this spring. Along with their portfolio and video presentations, teams will compete in head-to-head and capture-the-flag drone racing competitions.