CLEVELAND — Drones in the air move balls through a maze and fly through hoops: This is the inaugural Aerial Drone Competition presented by the Robotic Education and Competition Foundation. Middle school and high schoolers came to Cuyahoga Community College to pilot and program drones through tasks.
"Technical skills are really important for our students," said Mary Kay Bitterman, executive director of the Youth Technology Academy. "It helps them develop critical thinking. It helps them develop problem solving abilities. And because it's a drone competition, they get to work in teams."
Twenty-two teams were part of this drone sporting event, which provided valuable hands-on learning and problem-solving opportunities.
"It's really inspiring," Bitterman said. "They have a ton of fun, but they're very serious about their flight skills. They're very serious about their autonomous programs, and that's when they use programing language to complete a mission."
Over at Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse at the third annual Score with STEM event, the Cleveland Cavaliers and NEOSTEM Ecosystem showed off limitless stem career pathways to greater Cleveland students. From robots to esports, the event even got the attention of Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb.