HENRY COUNTY, Va. – The drones at Bassett High School may be small, but they're having a big impact.
"It's probably one of the best experiences I've had at Bassett in a while. There's no other class that does stuff like this," senior Joshua Reynolds said.
About a week ago, Reynolds and six other students in the Tech Squad class started using drones to deliver candy and notes around the school.
"We've only done a couple of deliveries, but from how many deliveries we've done, I'm really proud of what we've done," Reynolds said. "It actually is helping me a lot because I'm hopefully going into UAV piloting for the military."
Donna Hicks teaches the class and was inspired to start the drone delivery project by recent local news stories about drone delivery service coming to Christiansburg.
"We want them to be able to compete anywhere they go. No matter what their plans are for the future, we want them to compete and have those skills that are hard to teach sometimes," Hicks said. "But by doing practical applications, being able to think on your feet, saying, 'Oh, that didn't work. Let's do this,' just being able to go back and forth and that problem solving is huge no matter what field you're interested in."
Soon, the students will also be able to put those skills to the test using larger drones.
"I was able to purchase, with some career and technical funds, a couple of drone kits that are much bigger drones and they can actually build," Hicks said.
That's a welcome challenge for the students as they fly towards their futures.