School Library & Local Science Museum Drone Collaboration

My Students

“We are a community” is our library motto. Students come to the library to work collaboratively on projects & homework, read, get support for research, use computers, create art, do jigsaw or word puzzles, play board games, craft, or engage in librarian created STEAM challenges.

The most notable thing about our student body is their generosity.

Students are active in academic and social clubs, many of which engage in public-minded activities to benefit our community. Our school supports a sense of civic pride and encourages student engagement. We live in a relatively small rural/suburban community. Students come from varied socio-economic backgrounds. We have a strong special education program at that serves students of varied ability and need. Many students work after school. Many of them go onto college while many others enter the trades. In short, we serve a relatively diverse populace in terms of demand and ability. The library is the pulse of our school. Located at the physical center of the building, it is filled virtually all day, with teens engaged in activities throughout the room. The library fosters a vibrant learning community promoting a love for knowledge, respect for each other, and an appreciation of our diverse skills and passions.

My Project

We have developed a partnership with a space science museum to support a STEAM Makerspace/Learning Lab in our library. Our first collaborative project is to design and build a drone. The project will help students gather and evaluate information. It will support innovation, creativity and critical thinking. With the help of the librarian, administration, teachers, and museum staff, it will allow students to become comfortable with collaboration and communicating with experts. Students will work within a budget, create an engineering project plan, build a drone kit and modify the drone with CAD and a 3D printer, create a documentary about the experience, design a web site, write articles for the school paper and other media outlets outside of our walls and deliver presentations about our work.

This project is open to all students and will cater to varied interests and abilities.

Students will engage in authentic learning, picking up skills that will serve them in a 21st century world. Furthermore, the project will boost our sense of community due to its large-scale collaborative nature. We hope that this will serve as a model for other non-formal learning opportunities.