WHAT DO space exploration, drone piloting, and robotics have in common? If your child is a student at Forest Middle School (FMS), all three subjects are taught as part of the school’s science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) and career and technical education curriculum. The combination of the three subjects owes much of its start and continuing growth to STEM and career and technical education teacher Cindy Watson.
To better understand how Watson and FMS students got to the place of entering drone competitions and developing robots that can navigate maps of the planet Mars, it’s important to see where Watson’s connections led her over the past few years.
In addition to being a full-time middle school teacher, Watson works for the NASA Space Grant program, where she serves as a master teacher. She teaches online during the school year. In the summer, she spends some of her time either at the NASA facility at Wallops Island on the Eastern Shore of Virginia or at NASA Langley, working with some of the high school student academies NASA offers.
Last summer, when Watson and her students were at NASA Langley, she met a STEM coordinator for the facility. That coordinator told Watson that NASA wanted to help some schools around the region start drone competition teams. NASA even said it would help fund the teams. Once the connection with NASA’s drone program was established, FMS also applied for and received the grant.
Watson, along with fellow FMS teachers, Karen Quintana and Steve Hammer, formed eight teams of kids who practiced drone flying and coding — software programming that needs to be written for the drones to fly. Watson pointed out that in competitions, every team has the exact same model of drone, so the testing falls much more on the students’ hands-on skills.
During the competition, one of the categories is called “alliance flying.” Watson explained that students from different schools observe each other’s skills and draw up teams that could include some of the best pilots or coders from various schools. Watson said that high school competitors approached her middle school students and asked them to join the high school drone teams as alliance partners. That’s the reputation the FMS team holds.
In May, FMS students achieved great success at the Drone Competition National Championship in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Watson reported that the teams finished nationally fourth and eighth for flying and 10th and 23rd for piloting and coding skills. At the same time, Watson was recognized as the 2024 National Coach of the Year for the REC Foundation through the national championship hosted by Tennessee Valley Robotics.
After the team came home, Watson said, “I am grateful for our fabulous coaching staff, supportive families, and amazing students!” To FMS parents and local team sponsors, she added, “Thank you for believing in us!”
Watson’s connection to NASA also led some of her students to participate in a Q&A video session with astronaut Loral O’Hara at the International Space Station. Watson said that students submitted their questions via video, and then, through a NASA satellite downlink, O’Hara answered the questions on camera from the space station. Watson’s students and some from Brookville High School were able to do a similar but live on-camera Q&A exchange with former astronaut Fred Haise from Apollo 13.
The robotics design side of the curriculum is also tied to space education. Watson said that her students draw topographical maps of Mars. Then, students build a robot vehicle to navigate specific locations and planet features that serve as key destination points. Additionally, the Mars vehicle has a drone attached to it that must be flown successfully from one point to another on the map.
Over the summer, Watson and other teachers conducted drone, robotics, and rocketry camps for fourth through eighth graders, which were taught by many of her former FMS students who are now freshmen and sophomores at the high school.
Why such a strong focus on the STEM curriculum?
Watson explained, “I want to share my love for math and science. They say 80% of jobs that are available for graduating students are STEM — then we should be spending 80% of our time on STEM.” She added a side note, “What if this is what it takes for a student to go into science or math?”
For Watson, having just one kid make that move because of their experience with the FMS drones, robotics, or space curricula would make all the time and energy totally worthwhile. GN
