The Carrier STEMulated Minds Drones Mission competition was a success as Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County members gathered to participate in the Drones Legend Competition on Monday, July 18 at Carrier Global Corporation headquarters in Palm Beach Gardens. Drone Legends founder and CEO, Scott Buell hosted the event. In addition to the competition, Club members discussed STEM-related career paths with Carrier leaders, including engineers, and toured Carrier’s world headquarters, the Center for Intelligent Buildings.
“This partnership with Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County and Carrier is a no-brainer. Our missions and values are in alignment, said founder and CEO of Drone Legends Scott Buell. We founded Drone Legends on the belief that ‘inside every child lives a legend.’ It’s fitting then that we held this drone-themed event at Carrier’s amazing Center for Intelligent Buildings. We’ll continue to bring the “magic of drones” to the children here in the West Palm Beach community after this event ends through Drone Legends programs running at Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County.”
The drones flight competition was specially designed by Buell and consisted of five teams from Boys & Girls Club of Boca Raton, Boys & Girls Club of Delray Beach, Neil S. Hirsch Family Boys & Girls Club, Florence De George Boys & Girls Club and Max M. Fisher Boys & Girls Club. Each team had as many as six opportunities to fly through the course, competing for the fastest time. All practice runs were timed and counted for the competition. The winning teams included Delray Beach Boys & Girls Club coming in first place, Boys & Girls Club of Boca Raton coming in second place and Neil S. Hirsch Family Boys & Girls Club coming in third place. All three teams achieved the fastest time and won the overall competition taking home the grand prize, in addition to winning an exciting field trip to iFLY- Indoor Skydiving – Fort Lauderdale.
To date, more than 120 high school and middle school club members from seven clubs have participated in the highly interactive program, made possible through support from Carrier. Carrier employees judged the competition and led members on an interactive tour of the Center to learn about the building and the healthy, safe, sustainable and intelligent solutions that Carrier provides.
“Carrier supports programs that inspire young people to discover a potential career in the sciences, technology and engineering fields,” said Edith Di Francesco, Vice President of Engineering, Refrigeration, Carrier, who was among the judges for the event. “It was great to see the excitement in the eyes of these potential future innovators and their engagement with STEM.”
The drone program is phase two in a yearlong program designed for Club members to discover a potential future career in the sciences, technology, and engineering field. The Drone Legends system is a learn through experience program that provides STEM-themed drone lesson plans and curriculum to introduce engineering, coding and machines. Drones address a child’s whole development including gross motor, fine motor and cognitive / problem solving skills.
“Our members absolutely love flying drones,” said Cultural Arts Manager for Boys & Girls Clubs of Palm Beach County Casandra Tanenbaum. “This program has been an incredible opportunity for them to learn aviation vocabulary and develop significant skill sets in this cutting-edge technology. Drone flight is one of the fastest growing fields of STEM, and our young leaders are gaining a potentially profitable advantage to build great futures.”
STEMulated Minds includes various modules and initiatives that focus on STEM and are divided according to age group and skill level. Every activity is about affording each participating member opportunities to learn and excel at their own pace and level without the fear of failure.
To ensure that Boys & Girls Club of Palm Beach County children continue to receive opportunities to participate in STEM programs, click on the button below.
