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Today, Ana and her students will share how integrating robotics has reshaped their learning environment, turning traditional education on its head through project-based learning. So let's welcome Ana and her robotics team.

(audience applauding)

Hi. Hello, everyone. Thank you so much for coming to watch our presentation. We are going to share a little bit about our STEM programs at the school. These are our presenters: myself, Journi Easter, Itzel Aguilar, and Jonathan Hernandez.

Let me start by sharing a little bit about our school. Phoenix STEM Military Academy is part of the Chicago Public School District 299. At the same time, we are a JROTC school that is heavily focused on STEM programs. We are located in the heart of Chicago, which is amazing as we are easily accessible through public transportation. This is just a short overview of our school. We are currently ranked 29th in the state of Illinois and ninth among all CPS high schools. In regards to the demographics of our students, roughly 97% of our students come from minority backgrounds, with 82% Hispanic and 13% Black.

Now, we'll be talking more about robotics. Robotics at our school is an opportunity we give our cadets to grow in many STEM aspects and to continue growing their passion for STEM careers. Before we get into what we are doing at our school, I believe it is important for you to understand our history and how it continues to affect who we are and how we continue to grow. It is a very student-led program.

In 2021, our founders, who were freshmen and sophomores, were very passionate about robotics due to using VEX components in their classes, including exploring computer science and their AP computer science principal classes. They came together and formed a robotics club, and this is where we started. Our club meets in an after-school setting, fostering a lot of collaboration and networking. We come together to grow ideas, not only for VEX competitions but also to learn about STEM and its impact on our world. It's a lot of student teaching. Our founders are still here and help a lot of our underclassmen, who are highly encouraged to join to start building a strong foundation in robotics.

We highly encourage our underclassmen to join the club first because it helps them grow a foundation in autonomous programming and using different materials to build robots with various purposes. We noticed that our club was a good time, but it wasn't enough time for us to continue building, so we made a class. This is an after-school, honors-credited class that teaches the history of STEM. We have many presentations, not only on VEX but also on the history of STEM, like the most popular engineering branch, civil engineering. It's very project-based, with a lot of hands-on learning to teach our students to continue to grow.

We also have a team. We actually just came back from competing yesterday. We competed in a national JROTC competition. We compete locally and nationally. This is our first year competing, and we are very proud of our team. We have an opportunity to gain scholarships because being here in VEX Worlds and other competitions allows us to meet new people, including educators and people from other schools, even internationally. We made friends from across the sea, which was really cool. We placed 54th out of 282 JROTC teams, and just yesterday, we placed 14th out of 68 VEX teams in the JROTC division. Woo.

(audience applauding)

Our team is very diverse, and here's a picture of our team.

Thank you for your attention and support. We are excited about the future of our robotics program and the opportunities it will continue to provide for our students.

On two sides, we have our very passionate coaches who continue to motivate us, who continue to let us grow, to give us wings to continue growing our passion for STEM, and teach us about how we can continue having a STEM career. We have a few underclassmen in there. It's very fun. It's a very interesting environment. It's very friendly. We encourage everyone to join.

So here's our objectives and what we do. We have a lot of field trips, and these field trips are an opportunity for us to open doors. We understand that it is very interesting and important to learn the theory behind robotics and what it does and what it can help us in the future. But these field trips open doors because we get to see in the real world how our learning and foundation in robotics have helped our world around us. In Chicago, we have the Science and Industry Museum, which is very interesting, with a lot of hands-on experiences that we have learned from there, and it continues to help us.

We also have a lot of hands-on experience when it comes to building those robots. We understand the different materials and the costs involved. All of these factors also play into the real-world engineering process. We also inspire a lot of people within our school and go to middle schools to help them understand that if they have a passion in STEM, our school can help them grow. Personally, for me, in middle school, I had very little to no experience in STEM. Coming here to Phoenix Military Academy helped me grow my passion and understand that I do have a future in what I am doing.

We use technology and practical applications to continue helping the world because we also do some type of community service to give back to our communities who raised us. Here are a few pictures of our projects, prototypes, and our current VEX game setup. Over there in the corner, we have the first prototype of our competition robot. That first competition was very nerve-wracking, but it was a very fun experience. Everyone there was so friendly; they helped us by sharing their own robot designs. VEX has always provided a friendly environment for us to continue to grow and connect with other people.

Here are some pictures of us working on the autonomous program that we have built. It's a lot of trial and error, but that trial and error helps us grow in perseverance. It helps us understand that we are going to fail at some point, but that failure will only help us grow and continue moving towards our goals.

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Okay, so now I'll be talking a little bit about our engineering program at our school. Here at Phoenix, we offer Introduction to Engineering (IED), Principles of Engineering (POE), civil engineering, aerospace engineering, cybersecurity, digital electronics, and manufacturing. Unfortunately, the last two classes won't be available until the school year 2025-2026, so none of us will be able to take those classes. I was really interested in the manufacturing class, but, you know, next time.

Our school offers summer accelerated classes, which consist of five weeks of taking an engineering class of your choice. You can do five weeks of Introduction to Engineering (IED) for rising freshmen. Basically, you'll take these classes the summer before you actually start the school year. We also offer five weeks of Principles of Engineering (POE) and five weeks of aerospace engineering. These classes are completely optional but highly recommended because you'll have credits before you even start the school year, which helps your GPA.

Here is a Google spreadsheet of all the different paths you can take at our school. On this side, you can see the grade levels. The yellow is the rising summer, and the green is the current school year.

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Thank you for your attention and support. We hope to see many of you join us in our journey of exploration and innovation in STEM. Your involvement and enthusiasm make all the difference.

Me personally, I was on path D. I graduated eighth grade online because it was during COVID, so I didn't know anything about computer science, robotics, engineering, nothing. So I didn't take anything my rising ninth-grade summer. However, during my rising 10th-grade summer, I did Introduction to Engineering, IED, and I actually really fell in love with it. I never thought of engineering before that because I felt like it wasn't for me. However, I actually have a huge passion for it. When I graduate, I do want to major in mechanical engineering. With helping the robotics team, I sometimes help build the robot. Doing that has let me know what I wanted to do for my future.

Ah, yes. I, myself, also took a path of C and D, a combination of them both. I did not take any algebra prior to my freshman year because my school did not offer it. Prior to my freshman year, I did take Introduction to Engineering, and during my freshman year, I took principal engineering. During my junior year, I'm currently taking aerospace engineering, which is now a class I really like because I'm currently trying to major in aerospace engineering and I'm also trying to become a commercial pilot. Both majors are something I'm really obsessed with and something I really like. Considering that I was not really into STEM before that, my brothers were really the ones that introduced me to STEM. My current brother is studying mechanical engineering at U of I. He is about to graduate this year, and I wasn't really interested in it until I took my class prior to freshman year. It was something I really liked. I got really excited about designing and anything I could possibly do with engineering. So I really fell in love with it.

During my rising ninth-grade summer, during my 10th rising summer, for Introduction to Engineering, our final project was to create a Lego. This is the Lego I created. We used this software called Autodesk Revit, so we were able to build the robot. It's not like you just get the pieces and put them together. No, you have to create it piece by piece. You have to build the arms, the heads, everything. Something I really like about this class is you can get pretty creative with it. You can design a Lego however you want. Some kids made Batmans, others made Spider-Man, Black Panther. I made Harley Quinn. Something I really love about my Lego specifically is that I was able to draw everything on my Lego. At that time, I couldn't find a Harley Quinn Lego design, so I kind of had to figure it out myself. I wanted to add a wig to my Lego, except that would've taken another week, and our five weeks were already over.

Now, this is civil engineering. This is the class I'm currently taking. In this class, we start off with making a shed, then we make a house, a store, a pool, and a gazebo. Here I show only two things: this is the store I made, and that's the pool. This is a Spirit Halloween store. If you don't know what that is, it is a costume store. Around the time we were creating this, it was Halloween, so I got inspiration from that. Something I love about this class, like I said earlier, is we get to build everything. As you can see, the store has more of an arc and it's not like a square store. When creating this, you use rectangle components, but then you have to go back in and chop off the corners to give it that perfect arc. We have to personally add in the logo and the components you see. Components are the things you add, like clothes, food, etc., like these tables. These are also components. I really enjoyed this project. Actually, you can't see from this angle, but behind here, there is a window where you pay for your stuff. A person would be standing back behind there; there's a cash desk and everything. And then over here, that's my pool.

Something I really enjoyed about the pool, which was pretty challenging, is adding the water. As you can see, the pool is in one solid shape. It's not a perfect rectangle, and it's not a perfect square. So when adding the water, you have to do sections of the water and then extrude it to make it wider. The water did take the longest because it's just such a weird shape. But I actually really enjoyed it.

And here, this is aerospace engineering. Of course, I am currently taking aerospace engineering, so I could talk a bit more in depth about the rocket. As you can see, the rocket is divided into five parts. In the bottom left corner, you can see the rocket fin, which will keep the rocket stable and perfectly vertical in the air. The same rocket fins will hold the engine that will be in the bottom right.

In the top left, meaning the middle, you can see the body tube that is basically the big body of the rocket. It is currently holding the blue cylinder and the red cylinder. The blue cylinder represents a waddle, which is a flame-resistant material that will prevent the red cylinder, which represents the parachute, from igniting on fire when the rocket is actually ignited. As you can see in the bottom right, it is currently our paper casing that will hold all the components of the engine.

The gray cylinder in the bottom left is the clay nozzle. It will hold all the components in place while also helping the rocket ignite. In the purple cylinder, that will be our igniter, the ignition, it is made out of black powder. In the blue, it is currently a delayed charge that will ignite. Once it ignites, it will let out smoke and will also cause a parachute to come out of the rocket. A parachute comes out of the rocket to prevent it from getting any damage once it's at its apogee, which is the maximum altitude. As you can see, the rings also will allow keeping the engine in place inside the rocket and prevent anything from falling apart.

These are really cool rockets since we're actually gonna end up building them after we finish designing them. They will get 3D printed, and we will actually start building them once we get back to school. There is a list on this side. You may not be able to see it clearly because it is quite small. But that list tells you what type of materials we use, how many of them we need, and it tells you the cost. This is actually very important because for people that want to go into an engineering major like the three of us, we have to know that cost is an important factor because, you know, money connects to everything.

In our engineering classes, we do have some type of financial aid. He explains to us the quality of a product, how much you will need of it, the prices, things like that. You know, going to college, you need all the help you can get. So starting to learn about financial aid in an engineering class is really helpful.

As you can see now, we'll be talking more in depth about the drones. We, in Phoenix, have a very unique drone program since it is one of the few schools in Illinois that actually has the program. And we're the only ones in Chicago that have the drone program. We are currently actively trying to enroll other students in CPS to start a drone program in their school. We currently do exhibitions at middle schools and other high schools to encourage students to start a drone program.

How we started, we of course started with our program manager, Ms. Marcia Boyd. We partnered up with After School Matters in a citywide program that any school in CPS was able to join. It was a very cool experience, and we did start talking about aviation.

Thank you for your attention and interest in our projects. We are excited about the future and hope to inspire more students to join us in these innovative programs.

We were able to enroll 25 highly motivated students who really wanted to major in aviation and aerospace engineering. We started by discussing engineering concepts, focusing on the force of lift, aerodynamics, and how a drone stays in the air. After a year, we shifted our focus more towards drones and began practicing with the Fly Ranger XO drones, as shown in the top left picture. Our practice sessions took place both in the hallways and outside.

We organized field trips, including visits to the airport to learn about air preparations and how aircraft function outside. As part of a city-wide program, ComEd demonstrated how they use drones professionally for tasks such as inspecting windmills and power lines. They showcased an expensive drone used to traverse the U.S., from near the Canadian border to the Texas border. It was a unique and enjoyable experience, revealing the impressive capabilities of drones.

Our program has evolved into a club at PSMA, marking its first year here. I'm really excited about its development. We offer a hands-on experience with our drone program, flying them professionally for videography and forecasting, as well as in competitions and obstacle courses. Drones sometimes break or malfunction during these activities, so we learn to disassemble, reassemble, and repair them, including changing motors and propellers. It's a cool experience, and we also learn coding with drones.

In our last competition in Mississippi, we used Python and block coding to navigate drones autonomously through obstacles. Besides autonomy, we practice skills tests to fly drones efficiently and quickly through obstacles. We explore high-demand careers with drones, such as those with Walmart and Amazon, who are currently using drones.

Lastly, we aim to help students obtain their Part 107 license, enabling them to work commercially with drones. We cover the eight chapters of Part 107 material and provide access to GLEIM Exam Prep for studying. Topics include regulation airspace, weather services, air radio communication procedures, loading performance, and airport operations. Understanding these is crucial for safe drone operation, especially near airports, where communication with ATC is necessary.

The exam prep offers unlimited practice exams. By consistently studying and achieving a score of 90% or higher on practice exams, students can take the real FAA exam and apply for the Part 107 license.

Currently, I did take the program, and I'm currently Part 107 certified. It was a very difficult, rigorous course of study because I had to learn everything about maps and air preparations, and how everything worked. In my opinion, the hardest part was the maps. It was very challenging since you had to learn about how airplanes function in different areas, as different places have different airspaces and different aircraft operating within them.

I did mention competitions; we competed in the National JROTC Competition. As you can see in the left picture, it was in Batesville, Mississippi. It was our first time competing, and we ended up 16th out of 30. We qualified for the quarter-finals, which I think is really impressive considering it was our first time. We also did not know any of the rules or how to get points. It was something we really had to learn. We had to communicate with our peers and other teams from different states. We had to track how to get points, how to navigate obstacles, and how to fly through them. It was a very fun experience, very similar to the world competition that took place over the past few days. It was something I had not experienced before, and I'm very grateful I was able to experience it.

Drones are now used in the real world in various ways. For example, the first time they were used was in August 2005 during Hurricane Katrina. There was flooding and many obstacles that boats could not get through, so they used drones. They used an older generation model to find stranded survivors and identify flooded areas quickly to determine where to go first. In China, there were obstacles everywhere, including collapsed bridges, making it difficult for cars and people to pass. There was also a lot of smoke, which was dangerous. Drones were used to navigate through these obstacles and find stranded individuals. They also provided hope to people, as seeing a drone indicated that help was on the way.

In Nepal in 2015, aircraft rescues were almost impossible due to damaged runways and a lack of fuel, as most fuel stations were damaged. Drones were used for 3D mapping, and thorough cameras were used to find survivors under debris. One of the most recent uses was in the Scottish Highlands, where it used to take 60 minutes by car to deliver COVID-19 test kits. With drones, the time was reduced to 15 minutes, which was very helpful for providing timely assistance. Another recent instance was the flooding in April 2022 in South Africa. Drones took terrain photographs of flooded areas and guided rescue teams on where to go first.

Drones are not only used in the civilian world but also in the Air Force. The MQ-9 Reaper, for example, is frequently used in the Air Force. It can carry out various missions, including striking targets, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare. It is currently used in Europe, Mexico, and many other places around the world. Other countries are developing similar technologies, and drones are now in high demand for the future.

Thank you for your attention and interest in this topic. If you have any questions or need further information, please feel free to reach out.

And thank you for our presentation. Do you guys have any questions?

Woo. (audience applauding)

(audience question)

Yes, sir. So I'm currently trying to study, I'm trying to be a commercial pilot and at the same time get my engineering degree with aerospace. I currently have a college in mind where it's a dual enrollment program with U of I in Parkland College. I do two years of Parkland College. I'll get my certificates to become a commercial pilot in my 1500 hours with them. And once I finish that one, I will be automatically enrolled to U of I to get my bachelor's degree in aerospace engineering. And hopefully also that's what I'm trying to do.

For me, like I said earlier, I do wanna major in mechanical engineering with a minor in education because I do wanna become a teacher. But for colleges, I was looking more into the service academies like the US Naval Academy in West Point, more towards the US Naval Academy because they have the best engineering program, especially when compared to West Point, so.

Personally for me, so I am trying to go into ROTC in my college, but I am trying to major in somewhere between electrical engineering or mechanical engineering or try and combine both majors because I know that both of them do have a very big impact in our world and it's also another way I can give back to my communities.

Any other questions? I've got a couple of questions for you. The first one was, you were talking about the coding for your drone.

Yes, sir. So that's something I've been struggling with in my class for the last two years. So what program do you guys use and what drone do you use to autopilot your drone?

We currently use Blockly for Robolink. They were the, we specifically use the JROTC code drone, .edu. It was mainly used for us since we are a JROTC school. But any of the tool drones, the code drone, they all work exactly the same with the same program. And that's what we use to code our drones and that's the drone we use to compete.

Okay. And the second one was what is, I know you said it, but I missed it. What was the name of the program you used for the Part 107 training?

We used the GLEIM Exam Prep. That was a very useful exam that, I mean exam preparations that I found very useful. It helped me study for the part 107 a lot.

Thank you very much. Anybody else?

Okay, well, that was inspiring. Amazing. And we really enjoyed that you shared that with us. Everyone, give them a huge round of applause.

(audience applauding)

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