On Monday, October 17, Prairie STEM brought tech fun to Schuyler Central High School for their Technology/Career Fair 2022. In one classroom, students learned about esports (organized, competitive video game playing) and the value and skills playing on an esports team gives. Esports is the world’s fastest growing sport now, for participants as well as spectators. The skills that playing esports gives students are why colleges are adding esports teams and scholarships to their offerings.
Drones were taught in another classroom. Drone pilots are in high demand right now, and this need will continue to grow. Many companies are testing drones now for product delivery services, and this area will only grow. Drones are becoming common in agriculture now. They are used to inspect the status of animals, fencing, farm equipment, structure damage, and much more. Realtors hire drone pilots for house pictures, insurance companies hire drone pilots to get pictures of storm damage. Valmont hires drone pilots to inspect utility towers, power lines, and transmission line structures. There are more open drone positions currently than there are drone pilots to fill them.
3-D technology is on the cutting edge of many fields today, such as animation, graphic design, 3D modeling, and cyber careers. The medical field has many 3D modeling jobs. Students at Schuyler Central were able to try on some Oculus virtual reality goggles by Meta and swim in ocean with sea creatures in Ocean Rift, paint in 3D using Open Brush, and dissect animals with Dissection Simulator.
Our fourth station was robots, where students maneuvered robots through a driving course. Bingo the robotic dog was there to greet them.
