A drone was watching more than 335 high school students on Thursday. The students responded by waving to the camera as a radio-controlled quad-rotor drone hovered above them in the Barton Community College Fine Arts Building.
The latest technology and time-honored research techniques were featured at the college’s 10th annual Jack Kilby Science Day. The half-day science fair was attended by students from 17 Kansas high schools.
Fort Hays State University Associate Professor of Geosciences Dr. John Heinrichs operated the drone from his iPad for the keynote presentation, “Eye in the Sky: Doing Science with Drones.” A short video from the session by Barton’s Julie Munden can be seen on Internet site YouTube at www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCjxYzRbAaU&feature=em-uploademail.
“These are the toys I always wanted, when I was your age,” Heinrichs told the audience. He talked about the current use of drones from weather to precision agriculture and archeology. He mentioned various careers that await students who are interested in the technology. The drones used Thursday ranged in price from $70 to $300.
While Heinrichs was the featured speaker for Jack Kilby Science Day, students had several hands-on learning opportunities with instructors throughout the campus. Following the keynote speaker, they broke into groups and attended two of more than a dozen programs ranging from “Physics Magic” and “Digital Age in Law Enforcement” to sessions covering paleontology, worms, chemistry, ultrasound and more. Some even chose to take a turn flying one of Heinrichs’ drones.
While Jack Kilby Science Day honors Great Bend’s Nobel Prize winner in Physics, Jack Kilby, inventor of the microchip, this year’s Kilby Day was also dedicated to Barton chemistry instructor Guy Causey, who died on Oct. 4.