A little background, the G3 Drones for Good Competition originated on the way to the airport from the 2014 Drone Prize competition in Bend Oregon..
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JLGca_o4Vts
The Drone Team was deeply involved in STEM outreach through our FLL program. After the competition one Drone Team member ask “Why can we use drones technology the same way FLL uses robotics to introduce the excitement of STEM to middle school students”. It sounded like good idea so we did.
The first year we invited several FLL teams who had done well in our FLL competition to our little after season STEM experience. We limited the number to five teams to be manageable. We stressed the technical aspects of drones, the best flying practices (FAA rules and AMA guidelines) and a research project to study how drones could be used for positive purposes their community. We also had students build their own drone out of Kne’x, learn to fly and compete in an exciting flying skills competition. The first G3 Drones for Good competition was a great success and all the teams ask if we could do it next year and invite them back.
For our second G3 DFG competition we wanted to grow it to 20 teams and extend an invitation to some of the underserved area in Atlanta. This dictated that we shift the training from ourselves to coaches and mentors. To do this we developed a training program which covered the theory, how to build and troubleshoot student drones and how to teach flying. We also setup up Saturday morning trouble shooting and flight training sessions at our high school.
As word got out and we were approached by others asking how they could do the same.
For our third year we are looking into developing a package to help other replicate our program. Before we pulled the trigger on this effort we wanted to gauge the level interest, hence this post.