A growing number of U.S. high schools are incorporating drones into their curricula to help spur interest in STEM education and to open up a new career path in aviation.  One of the latest schools to do so is Hartford, CT-based Middletown High School which first embraced drones several years ago but is now refining its approach to allow students to receive training from Aquiline Drones, one of the nation’s leading minority-owned drone companies.

The Aquiline Drones course provides training on how to set up and operate a drone small business that utilizes drone to power-wash office buildings, one of the firm’s many commercial specialties.  Aquiline and Middletown High School have worked together in the past, but just informally.  Several Middletown seniors went on to work as summer interns for the company last year, but this year’s initiative reflects a much closer integration between school and company, officials say

Aquiline’s drone small business development approach is unusual among high schools that have embraced drone courses.  However, the firm’s founder is a strong believer in the idea that high school students, especially those from minority backgrounds, need alternatives to traditional college-level education as a path to professional advancement.

So, it turns out, is the local school board.  Last week, board member Deborah Kleckowski, a key booster of the Middletown program, praised the company’s partnership with the high school.  “It’s so important because college isn’t for everybody,” she said.

Applied drone training at Middletown isn’t just for seniors, either.  Some students are now working with UAVs as early as middle school.  Last year, a group of Middletown students, including one seventh grader, flew drones equipped with thermal imaging cameras to search for hotspots on the school’s rooftop solar panels  The students, who received specialized training over the course of several weeks, discovered a half dozen malfunctioning panels that were not working properly, allowing repairs to be made.  Additional flight training missions are planned for the spring, school officials say.

Marshfield High School in Marshfield, Wisconsin is the site of another innovative high school drone training program.  Drawing on a US Department of Transportation grant, the school was able to purchase a $1,200 drone and proceeded to enter a statewide drone competition.  But when the students experimenting with the drone crashed and destroyed the aircraft, the school was  forced to improvise.  Instead of purchasing a new drone, students got together and decided to design their own UAV from scratch.  Working under the guidance of an engineering department professor, the student team worked for weeks, experimenting with a number of design prototypes, testing them in flight, and eventually arriving at a fully operational custom aircraft.

In a recent YouTube video, the students recounted the joys and frustrations of the experience, which they ultimately found rewarding.  Their professor called the improvised learning process a “great opportunity to bring together the different elements we teach in the classroom — design, problem solving, trouble-shooting and programming – and to do it all in a challenging real world environment.”

While the Middletown and Marshfield drone initiatives were developed on the spot in a self-organized fashion, more formalized high school training programs are also available at the national level.  New York-based Sky Op offers up to 400 hours of in-depth training to prepare students at the middle and high school levels for a career in drone operations.  Sky Op courses – offered remotely as well as on-site, as needed – cover indoor and outdoor flight instruction with leading commercial drone models, including the DJI Mavic and Phantom 4 series, as well as training in data collection and 3D photogrammetry.  The course also prepares students for all FAA test certifications and can assist with job placements at drone companies seeking to fill slots for pilots, engineers, data analysts and mechanics.

The FAA is keenly aware of the need to establish a high school education pipeline to ensure that the burgeoning drone industry has the skilled personnel it needs to remain competitive, especially as technology advances.  The agency insists that drone teachers be certified to fly and also insists on high standards for high school drone curricula.  At the same time, it encourages drone companies like Aquiline to sponsor internships at their firms for promising STEM students eager to learn about drones and to pursue careers in the UAV industry.

Some companies, like industry-leading Skydio, are sponsoring summer drone camps and other special activities that encourage drone learning by youth even at the primary school level.  Last February, Skydio lent its support to a six-day camp and mentorship program for girls, ages 11-14, sponsored by PreFlight Aviation Camp, a nonprofit dedicated to inspiring the next generation of drone pilots (of whom, just 8% are women).  The San Mateo, CA-based company provided a batch of Skydio 2 drones for training purposes at the camp and also dispatched two of its female employees to speak about future job opportunities at Skydio and in the drone industry generally.

Drone pilot training programs are also popping up at a growing number of four-year colleges and universities.  The New England Institute of Technology lists 11 “accredited” colleges with a full curriculum – some at the master’s and PhD as well as undergraduate levels.  Most of these programs are geared toward rapid integration into the commercial drone industry.  At Central Oregon Community College in Bend, Oregon, graduating students are required to spend one week at a UAV company to learn the real-life challenges, processes and standard operating procedures of commercial drone piloting.  Job offers from these same companies, anxious to fill slots for drone pilots, as well as drone designers, mechanics, data analysts and flight controllers, usually follow, school officials say.