NCTC holds summer DroneTECH Educators Workshop

Northland Community and Technical College (NCTC) can see the skywriting on the horizon. Unmanned aircraft is not the wave of the future. It is the tsunami of right now. To that effect, they are arming willing students of all ages with the power of information and education.

"We will be hosting our first National Science Foundation summer workshop for educators as well as a summer camp for high school students in August at Northland's Aerospace Campus in Thief River Falls," said Instructor/Program Manager of Unmanned Aircraft Systems, Jon Beck. "These events will provide great opportunities to learn about UAS technology and how to integrate it into the classroom."

Beck said Course curriculum modules will align to existing Common Core Standards to assist in streamlined integration to secondary STEM education. According to the course description, this workshop will provide secondary and post-secondary educators with an introduction to UAS and geospatial technology and the tools to incorporate into existing STEM education. Participants will have access to continued resources, curriculum and faculty expertise following the workshop.

"In the planning phases for our project we've found great depth and broad interest in UAS technology that will be fun to explore as we collectively help each other build it into our STEM education programs," said Beck.

Course attendees may have the option to earn two semester hours of graduate level university credit offered through Fresno Pacific University's Center for Professional Development upon successful course and written assignment completion.

Scholarships based on merit are available for this workshop.

Student Opportunity: Summer Camp

Summer camp is recommend for students from grades 9-12 and recent graduates.

"Our summer camp gives students the opportunity to get hands on experience in the maintenance and operation of UAS," said Beck, "then transform the data collected into usable industry products. The industry is wide open from pizza and package delivery to monitoring wildlife and farm fields."

Contact Jon Beck at NCTC for details.

jonathan.beck@northlandcollege.edu

Registration link: http://www.dronetech.northlandaerospace.com

This material is based in part upon work supported by the National Science Foundation (DUE 1501629). Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.