Taft Drone Club in Cincinnati, OH Awarded $100Ok to Continue …

The Taft Drone Club at Taft High School in Cincinnati, OH was simply awarded a grant of $100,000 by the Ohio Department of Education by a grant entitled “Mentoring Drone Clubs: Fueling Aerospace Engineering Career Pathways.”

This is huge information to us at UAV Coach, each as a result of we love the best way educators have been incorporating drones into STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) training, and likewise as a result of Matt Ernst, the founding father of the Taft Drone Club (pictured above on the far proper), is an previous pal of ours.

[Want to learn about other ways drones are being used for good? Check out this drones for good article we published a little while back—#4 is about STEM education.]

Matt was one of many first educators we ever met who was utilizing drones to educate STEM to college students. He was additionally the primary educator we supported by sending drones and by offering his college students with free entry to Drone Pilot Ground School, our distant course to assist drone pilots move the FAA’s Part 107 examination.

So it appears becoming that Matt was awarded this spectacular grant to assist his drone membership proper on the similar time that we’ve determined to formally roll out a scholarship program for Drone Pilot Ground School.

Announcing the Drone Pilot Ground School Scholarship

We’re proud to announce the High School STEM Scholarship for Aspiring Commercial Drone Pilots.

The scholarship offers free entry for certified highschool college students to our distant course, Drone Pilot Ground School, to assist them put together for the FAA’s Part 107 examination. Over 99% of our college students move on the primary attempt. We’re excited to lengthen free entry to assist highschool college students who’re working laborious to put together for his or her future in industrial drone work.

Applications might be accepted on a rolling foundation, and there’s no cap on the variety of college students we might be giving free entry to Drone Pilot Ground School.

The standards for eligibility is easy:

• Student have to be a minimum of 16 years previous
• Student have to be at the moment enrolled in highschool
• Student should stay in the U.S.

For all you highschool educators on the market with college students who’re in making ready for the Part 107 examination, check out our scholarship web page, encourage your college students to apply, and ensure to inform different educators in your neighborhood.

There isn’t any price to apply—you can begin your utility right here.

Drones in STEM and the Taft Drone Club

The Taft High School is situated in an city setting in a comparatively huge metropolis, the place college students don’t have quite a lot of alternatives after commencement. Matt Ernst’s preliminary considering in creating the drone membership was to present college students with an alternate profession path.

The analysis I’ve executed signifies that industrial drone pilots could make wherever from $40 to $75 an hour, and I would like our college students to have the chance to work in this rising discipline.

– Matt Ernst, Founder of the Taft Drone Club

Matt Ernst tells us that he first received the thought for beginning the membership when he heard that Amazon was growing drone supply options, which made him curious to find out about different methods drone might be used.

Image supply

When he did the analysis he realized—as you would possibly already know—that there have been 192 industrial makes use of for drones.

That was again in January of 2017. Though it’s solely been eight months since then, we think about that much more industrial makes use of have in all probability popped up in that point.

This data received Matt’s wheels turning, and made him consider all the advantages there might be for his college students to be taught, and grasp, this rising expertise.

After the membership began as an after college program in January, they hit the bottom working by taking part in the native Tech Olympics  the very subsequent month, the place they introduced on the 192 industrial makes use of for drones.

This was the primary time a challenge had ever been submitted from the Taft High School for the Tech Olympics. One of the highlights of the membership’s participation in the Olympics was when one of many membership members, a seventh grader with a formidable quantity of expertise flying drones, maneuvered a nano drone by a banquet corridor with an eight foot excessive ceiling and landed it on the desk immediately in entrance of the judges.

Long time period, the aim of the membership is to flip the varsity exercise into an accredited course that would offer some sort of STEM credit score for college students.

Looking for extra assets to allow you to get began with drones in the classroom? Make certain to take a look at this Edutopia article with seven concepts to allow you to get began, and likewise look into DroneBlocks, which offers a full curriculum for utilizing drones in STEM training.

About the Grant

$100,000 is a ton of cash. We have been curious to hear about what Matt proposed to win the grant, and what he plans to do for the membership now that he has the funds secured.

To begin out, a number of the grant cash might be spent on . Drones price cash, as everyone knows, and the funds wanted aren’t normally accessible in a typical after-school program price range.

Here’s the gear they have already got:

• 1 DJI Phantom four
• 1 Yuneec Typhoon 4K

Here are Matt’s targets for the Taft Drone Club this yr, which have been shared as a part of his proposal to the OH Department of Edcuation:

• Provide college students a profession various to faculty in the drone trade. Any industrial use of drone expertise requires an FAA drone pilot’s license. Prep college students for the FAA drone pilot’s certification examination (i.e. Part 107 examination) with the usage of the Drone Pilot Ground School on-line prep course.
• Integrate drone expertise into the classroom. Teachers have additionally been notified that drone and scholar pilots can be found for attainable tasks in the classroom.
• Show scholar’s drone makes use of in industrial, protection, and leisure industries.
• Present this course and curriculum to the ODE (Ohio Department of Education) for commencement credit score and faculty plus credit score.
• All college students might be engaged on the Drone Pilot Ground School course in the course of the college yr. The aim is to assist two upperclassmen in getting their drone pilot’s license.

TheTaft Drone Club’s 2017-2018 schedule was additionally an essential a part of their utility. Some of the grant funds might be used to assist college students make the journeys listed beneath (most notably the journey to the drone expo in Washington, D.C.).

Here’s the schedule:

• Perform at two soccer video games (halftime performances)—Fall 2017
• Attend the National Drone Expo Washington, D.C.—Nov. 2017
• Attend and oversee the Hour of Code—Dec 2017
• Attend and enter a challenge into the Tech Olympics Tech Competition—Feb 2018
• Create a video of the Taft High School grounds and embed it on the varsity web site—Feb 2018
• Co-manage a Cincinnati web site for the DRL—Summer 2018
• Plan and oversee the a District Racing League for any CPS college drone membership—May 2018

One huge aim Matt has this college yr is to assist two of his college students put together to develop into FAA licensed as industrial drone pilots. And—you guessed—each college students have free entry to Drone Pilot Ground School to assist their efforts.

Dontray Etter-Ward, a rising junior at Taft High School, is in video enhancing and video. He loves taking every bit of movie and taking part in with it, and he has an audio studio at house the place he does mixing and enhancing.

Gregory Haskins, an eighth grader, is likely one of the membership’s most skilled drone pilots, and he’s additionally an avid on-line gamer. Though he can’t get his license now he’s already making ready for the take a look at, and the membership appears to be like ahead to Gregory passing it when he’s eligible. Matt predicts that Gregory might be a favourite to win the CPS drone racing league title. It’s early, however Gregory is contemplating a profession in IT when he graduates highschool.

Apply for the High School STEM Scholarship for Aspiring Commercial Drone Pilots

Want free assist to assist your highschool college students move the FAA’s Part 107 examination? Start your utility now.