Canfield Middle School students build drone
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
The conversations in Laurie Howley’s eighth-grade Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics class led to talk about drones.
“Their brains started to go with it, and there were a couple of boys drawing cars,” she said of a CAD, or computer-aided design, creation class. “One thing led to another, and somehow we started talking about drones.”
Now in the final stretch of the 12-week cycle for the STEM class, her class of 21 is planning to get its drone in the air next week.
Dylan Hartman, 14, was quick to say that weather temperature does not affect the creation, but if there are high winds or rain, it can’t fly.
School officials approved the project as the students used everyday resources to build it — yardsticks, paint-stir sticks and zip ties — as well as ordering wires, electronics and propellers.
“My goal is to kind of just expose them. My first thing is to let them know that thinking is fun,” Howley said. “It’s fun to make stuff. It’s fun to use your hands and build.”
Dylan and Fletcher Christi, 14, talked about the design process. “We were originally going to have wheels, but for weight — we wanted it to be light — so we came up with these” stands, Fletcher said of 6- to 7-inch-tall plastic stands at each corner.
On the wall of the classroom are three previous prototypes that did not make the final cut. Some designs only featured squares while others had triangles — so to incorporate everyone’s ideas, the final product is a big square, broken into four smaller squares that are each cut into two triangles of the big square.
“A triangle is a stronger shape,” noted Gio Saadey, 13.
Wires line the top of the 18-by-18-inch frame. A camera is on the bottom with a lens about the size of the top of a pinky finger and the same quality as an iPhone, Dylan noted. The battery that powers the drone is in its center. Howley noted that they spent only about $300 on the project by using everyday things, and that school officials sponsored the project.
The 12-week class has not been solely about drone building. Howley said that students would work on 3-D printing, CAD work or robotics while waiting for parts to come in for the drone.
“The flight controller broke. We were having problems with it, so we upgraded it, and it should be in. That’s the only reason we’re not flying it today,” Fletcher noted.
Howley and the students are hopeful that if the drone is operational, it can be used at school events, from football games to student assemblies.
“If it breaks, then it breaks. We’ll come up with another idea,” Dylan said.