Tuesday, October 11, 2016

4-H National Youth Science Day teaches 200 youth about unmanned aircrafts at 'Drone Discovery'

The 2016 4-H National Youth Science Day, held Oct. 5 in Washington, D.C., featured a "hands-on engineering design challenge that explores the science behind drones and how they are being used to solve real world problems," according to 4-H. "Drone Discovery," developed by Cornell University Cooperative Extension, teaches youth about flight dynamics, aircraft types, safety and regulations and remote sensing and flight control.

Jennifer Sirangelo, president and CEO of the National 4-H Council, said about 200 youth participated in this year's event, Art Silverman reports for NPR. She told him, "Drone Discovery engineering challenge has different levels of activities, from unmanned flight to the coding behind remote sensing."

Some of the participants are already familiar with drones, Silverman reports. Emma Brown, 10, said her family has drones at its Maryland farm. She told Silverman, "At my dad's house, I have a really big drone, and it has a camera on it. And when my dad goes over to the farm, I get the drone out and fly it over there and spy on him and see what he's doing."

Others are new to drones, Silverman reports. Josh Renko, 11 told him, "Drones are probably going to take over the world." Lydia Eskeland, 15, from Virginia, said, " I mean I think a lot of good can come out of them, but it's kind of scary to think about at the same time that, like, 10 years from now, like, everything could be run by drones."

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