Photo: ArroTech consultant Steve Dunnivant interacts with students at a STEM Camp at North Bay Haven Charter Academy.
TechFarms tenant company ArroTech participated June 9 in the Artemis II Junior Aeronautical Summer STEM Camp hosted by North Bay Haven Charter Academy in Lynn Haven, Florida.
As a presenter, ArroTech was joined by the Navy Experimental Dive Unit from Naval Support Activity Panama City, the Panama City Fire Department, the Air Force Research Laboratory and camp sponsor Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Heather Stewart, a science and STEM academy teacher at the Paxton School in Walton County, coordinated the activity.
ArroTech was represented at the camp by TechFarms vice president/marketing and communication Steve Bornhoft and consultant Dr. Steve Dunnivant. They introduced students to the GEON E61 drone/metal detecting system, which had been placed on display, and fielded questions that reflected familiarity with drones among the 60 students in grades 6-8 who attended the camp.
Upon learning that the GEON E61 is capable of detecting and pinpointing the locations of landmines and other unexploded remnants of war in Ukraine and elsewhere, students uniformly responded, “That’s cool.”
Their questions ranged from “What kind of system does it use?” to “How high does it fly when it’s operating?” and “How far deep in the ground can it find stuff?”
One student volunteered that her father has a drone and “he has found metal toys buried in the backyard.”
Dunnivant engaged students with a game that challenged them to find lead fishing sinkers buried in a sandbox by using wand-style, battery-operated metal detectors. Students were curious to know how much the toy detectors and the GEON E61 cost and were impressed — “Whoa!” — by the difference in price!
Asked about their favorite school subjects, a majority of students offered “math” or “science,” but one art enthusiast somehow snuck into the mix.
The Air Force Research Laboratory stole the show with its robodog — some students couldn’t resist petting it — but they will remember, too, learning about ArroTech’s efforts to mitigate the dangers posed by landmines and UXO around the world.
