Jr.DroneTech Outreach Program for School-Aged Children in Malaysia

In the next decade, there is more importance to meet the demands of job openings in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) globally. However, student interest in STEM has been on the decline. Thus, it is essential to design meaningful STEM interventions to nurture STEM talent that is necessary to meet the demands of STEM labour force. This paper reports about the Jr.DroneTech STEM outreach program at a research university in Malaysia which is a collaborative initiative together with drone industry practitioners. In this program, three unique drone workshops were designed and implemented for school-aged children between 8 to 17. The workshops were designed through a collaboration with industry practitioners who trained university students from various departments including Electrical, Electronics and Systems Engineering, Information Science and Technology and Social Science and Humanities as facilitators to conduct these workshops. These university students facilitated the outreach program together under the guidance of the industry practitioners using a teaching module. Workshop participants were exposed to drone technology and its application in their daily life, the basic aerodynamics principles of a drone, different components of a drone, drone assembly, drone configuration, drone flight simulation, drone safety and ethics, flying a drone and 3D printed drone frame assembly and drone soccer basics. Quantitative data were collected to gather feedback on their prior knowledge and experience with drones, workshop experience (e.g. perspectives on teaching materials, facilitators) and how they might have influenced participants’ future interests, particularly in STEM-related careers and aspirations. It was found that the students had a positive reception of how the workshop was conducted. The intervention shows promise in engaging school-aged children in an informal context to foster interest and pathways in the field of STEM.