K-State Salina offering STEM education for teachers, including student drone racing

Kansas State University Salina Aerospace and Technology Campus is offering STEM educational opportunities for K-12 teachers throughout the state.

K-State Salina said there have been a couple of projects already in STEM — or science, technology, engineering and math fields — including in the areas of robotics, aviation, uncrewed aircraft systems and computer science.

Drone racing competition for students part of K-State program

One such outreach project was used to help middle school students compete in a drone racing competition through the campus's Applied Aviation Research Center (AARC), which provided training to school instructors to help students compete in drone design, engineering, overall speed and the skills of flying the drone.

According to K-State, students from around the state competed in the competition.

"STEM education is an important emphasis in many assets in life and helps build a promising future for any student," Kurt Carraway, K-State Salina uncrewed aircraft systems department head and AARC executive director said. "As a leader in drone education, safety and research, we take great pride in sharing our expertise with our fellow educators from around Kansas. Our industry is one that is constantly evolving as technology progresses. It is important to be able to prepare the next generation to have a base knowledge of uncrewed aircraft operations and regulations."

K-State's Project LEAPES offers direct impact to Salina children

Another opportunity at K-State Salina has been with a partnership with the K-State College of Education called Project LEAPES, which stands for Learning, Exploration and Application for Prospective Engineering Students.

This project, which received a grant from the U.S. Department of Defense, seeks to improve rural education in the state by offering free training and thousands of dollars in resources for teachers.

Through this project, K-State Salina hosted on-campus learning in STEM-related courses, including training in areas of expertise that include robotics, aviation, uncrewed aircraft systems and computer science. Faculty experts from the campus provided collegiate-level training and knowledge to instructors.

"We are excited to collaborate with the College of Education on the Project LEAPES Virtual Camp. Our campus is committed to supporting education outreach for all Kansans," said Troy Harding, department head of K-State Salina integrated studies. "These trainings and camps get technology into the hands of K-12 educators and their students. We hope this will ignite a passion in students leading to science and engineering careers."

Some of that technology stayed in Salina and got into the hands of USD 305 middle school students, including robot kits and drones.

"It's really great, especially since they have a focus on rural communities," said Renee Toms, a science teacher at Lakewood Middle School.

Toms said that while Salina is more of an urban-rural mix, the program has also provided other, smaller, schools with this technology such as robots, drones and tablets.

As a current doctoral student at K-State who also received her undergraduate degree there, Toms said it is nice to be able, as a teacher and for her students, to learn from professionals at the university.

"Getting to work with K-State professors and experts in the field, and having the students work with them as well, gives them that look into the kind of careers they might have been exposed to," Toms said.

This article originally appeared on Salina Journal: K-State Salina offering teachers STEM education, student drone racing