Aerial Drone Competition MS and HS - Career Readiness

There are nearly 300,000 professionals working in STEM fields across the Department of Defense and more than 80% of jobs will require STEM skills over the next decade. Explore the many STEM careers found at the Department of Defense. Investigate a specific career and discover similarities of that prospective career and what you are learning by competing in Aerial Drone Competitions.

Grade Level Requirements

Elementary School

Middle School

High School

College / University

No Grade Level Restrictions

Program Requirements

Aerial Drone Competition

Prizes

Top 8 Submissions: Automatic team invitation to compete at an Aerial Drone Championship and a PAID registration fee.

Winners will be selected among the following programs and grade ranges:

Aerial Drone Competition Middle School
Aerial Drone Competition High School

Eligibility

Teams must be part of a registered Aerial Drone Competition team for the current season.

This page is for Aerial Drone Competition Middle and High School entries only - if you are any other program or grade level, please refer to the Online Challenge Page to find the correct page for your program and grade level.
Only one entry per team is permitted. However, each team in a multi-team school or club program may submit one entry. For example, teams 123A and 123B could each submit an entry, but team 123A could not submit two entries. Entries must vary in content and presentation to be considered separate entries.
Entries submitted in previous years’ Online Challenges are not eligible for submission this year.

Requirements

Rules of the Challenge

How does a professional’s use of the design process match yours? As the world continues to become more technical, an increasing number of professions rely on some version of the engineering design process to identify and solve problems. Your submission will use a combination of text and images to identify a specific career or company and explore how its professionals apply and document the steps of a design process in the tasks of their job.

Things to keep in mind for a successful submission:

Which STEM career did you select, and why?
What resources did you find to learn about professionals in this career?
How do professionals in this career use what you are learning through Aerial Drone Competitions?
How has participation in Aerial Drone Competitions prepared you for a future career?
What opportunities are available to students to prepare for this career?

Technical Details

A submission must meet these minimum requirements in order to be judged.

Entry is created and produced solely by student team members. It is acceptable for adults to assist with downloading any necessary resources or submitting the story where students may need permission.
Format: One PDF file (up to 20MB) that includes all content, including images.
Size: Summary report up to 500 -1000 words.
- Title page, reference page, image captions, and any appended citations are not included in word count.
- Judges may use a software-based word counter such as http://www.montereylanguages.com/pdf-word-count-online-free-tool.html to verify word counts.
Title Page: Each entry must include a title page that includes:
- Title of submission
- Names of students who participated (using first names only is acceptable)
- Team number
- Location of team

Upload Instructions

Click the green Enter Challenge button on the right side of the screen.

Fill out the submission form and type a brief description of your challenge entry in the Full Description box.
Click Save.
Click the blue Links/Videos button in the upper right of the screen.
Enter the URL, title, and description of your video.
Click Add Link.

Judging Information

Up to 15 points for a submission that identifies a career and describes why it was chosen
Up to 15 points for a description of resources used in the exploration of the career and the opportunities available for students
Up to 15 points for describing how participation in Aerial Drone Competition prepares you for the future career
Up to 15 points for clear presentation of findings and organization of content
Up to 15 points for the quality and readability of the writing, including spelling, grammar, and sentence structure
Up to 15 points for the quality and thoroughness of images used to document the project

Deadline Information

Current time:
Mon, Jun 5, 2023 7:41 AM CDT

Opens:

Mon, Dec 5, 2022 12:00 AM CST

Closes:

Fri, Jan 13, 2023 2:00 PM CST

Entries

All Entries
View Finalists
View Winners