Students in Engineering at the LJMS ESTEEM Center are building complicated quadcopter racing drones using skills such as soldering, coding, engineering, and project management. Students are learning how to connect their computers with their drones and controllers. Several groups will work on managing different parts such as carbon fiber frames, reverse thread motors, power distribution boards, and flight controllers, as well as sharing the use of the soldering station. Other groups will plan on designing their drones into transportation devices with the ability to carry payloads or adding cameras to create surveillance drones.

In creating their drones, students will have learned to develop group cooperation skills and teamwork with each other. Drones require concentration, knowledge of the parts, and what they do to build one. Students can share the information when writing articles on ESTEEM Stream News explaining their experiences and learned knowledge about the drones for future years’ groups to learn from.

When students finish the drones, they will test them out in a race against each other. The most rewarding part of the experience is seeing the finished product and having fun flying at breakneck speed around the school. Students can even make a race track for fun and race!