Eight students attending five Montgomery County high schools spent the previous school year creating a drone with a delivery mechanism that could pick up and hold specified payloads, including a first aid kit, water bottle and chocolate bar.
Recently, they learned just how well they did, taking first place in the advanced category at a national competition held in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.
The “Some Assembly Required” drone team from Rockville Science Center’s Explorer Post 1o10 took top honors at the Uncrewed Aircraft System finals. The students designed and built a midsize quadcopter and were successful in a regional contest that had them headed to the nationals from July 22 to July 28.
They tested their drone over and over again, often at Red Gate Park in Rockville.
The students hailed from Bethesda-Chevy Chase, Poolesville, Churchill, Richard Montgomery and Sandy Spring high schools. There were four females and three males on the team.
As great as first place is, Robert Ekman, who oversees Rockville Science Center’s drone, robotics and rocketry teams, believes all the work during the school year was more valuable.
They learned teamwork and problem solving, Ekman and the drone team adult leaders, Tom and Beth May, agreed.
Ekman compared the team members to Olympic athletes, who performed well enough to earn a gold, silver or bronze medal. But what they did leading up to their couple of minutes of fame was what got them to podium. he noted.
The dedication, long hours and research “is really the story,” he said. “They are mentally engaged in trying to solve the problem.”
While in Wisconsin, team members watched a fly over involving 10,000 airplanes and 677,000 spectators, the Mays said.
A few of the team members are headed off to college, and like they do every year, the Mays are holding two open houses to find other interested students. For information, go to the explorer post’s website.
The team also has a Go Fund Me site to help toward the costs of the trip to the finals.
Explorer Post 1010 is part of Boy Scouts of America. It concentrates in engineering fields.
