At Neuqua Valley High School, students are doing much more than flying drones. They are designing, building, programming, testing, documenting, and presenting complete uncrewed aircraft systems. That work earned the school’s aerial robotics team first place in the Beginner Division of the national UAS4STEM competition at EAA AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.

Unlike drone racing or drone soccer, UAS4STEM challenges students to solve realistic engineering problems. At the national competition, the team completed a simulated construction-site inspection using autonomous flight and onboard technology. Students were evaluated on documentation, engineering, presentations, testing, and the aircraft’s performance. Anthony also shared that Neuqua Valley previously earned first place in the ARISE drone competition near Dallas.

Both competitions require students to work through uncertainty, diagnose failures, revise designs, and try again. The final flight is exciting, but the deeper learning comes through the process that makes it possible. A 2026 University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign study found that engineering students using AI-supported scaffolds reported greater motivation across attention, relevance, confidence, and satisfaction when solving a computational problem. The findings offer a useful reminder that technology is most powerful when it supports students as they reason, solve, build, and make decisions rather than simply producing something for them.

This work connects with IDEA’s Makers, Creators, Entrepreneurs, Learner Agency, and Modern Pedagogy and Assessment Spotlight Communities. It demonstrates what can happen when an educator gives students a meaningful challenge, trusts them with real responsibility, and supports them through productive struggle.

Congratulations to the Neuqua Valley aerial robotics team and
Anthony for creating an experience that asks students to think, build, revise, collaborate, and persist.