US partnership takes STEM to the skies

A partnership between Draganfly and Woz ED will see the deployment of 3000 drones throughout the United States in 2021 across a national K-12 curriculum.

The partnership will bring additional product development to Draganfly’s current and future pipeline in addition to reimagining the future of innovation for drone technologies.

Inspired by Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple, Woz ED provides a personalised approach to nurturing an engineering mindset through hands-on projects.

Woz ED is a model for incorporating the engineering process in the K-12 classroom in the US and accelerating the path to employment for students who choose drones as a career. Students start with an introduction to aviation in kindergarten and transition to physics of flight and flight skills in middle school. Students may choose elective courses in the junior and senior year to enrol in a drone course where students learn the engineering behind a drone, as well as earn their certification. The certification will make the students employable as they leave high school.

The Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International projected more than 100,000 new jobs in unmanned aircraft by 2025.

Draganfly will be the exclusive provider of drones as part of the Woz ED qualified for flight curriculum under their STEM programs. Students will gain hands-on experience piloting and spotting for drone missions, and designing and building for drone systems. Draganfly will also help develop further curriculum, career path development and field training for Woz ED students.

“Having an industry leader like Draganfly as a partner will give our kids the opportunity to learn from the best, with real-life experience and expertise,” said Wozniak.

“The military, energy, entertainment, real estate, agriculture, delivery, emergency response and construction sectors have embraced the power and the potential of drone technology, and NASA just landed Ingenuity on Mars! The industry-leading expertise Draganfly brings to this partnership amplifies our offerings in both curriculum and hardware as we expose young people to these booming career opportunities,” said Karen Young, CEO of Woz ED.

“It has been said that Steve Wozniak designed Apple’s first products, the Apple I and II, because they didn’t exist and he wanted to use them,” said Cameron Chell, CEO of Draganfly. “We are incredibly honoured to be working with Steve and the team at Woz ED because of their bold, disruptive innovation and way of approaching challenges with technology.”

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