Look up in the sky around James Blair Middle School and you’ll see birds, planes— and now drones.
“We want students at all levels to have the opportunity to learn something new,” said William Capers, the in-school suspension aide at James Blair Middle School. “Because the more skills we have, the greater value we provide to our community.”
Capers is one of three men, including Eric Stone and Archie Jefferson, who are leading the way in drone technology for students in the area. In the fall, the trio will begin the first iteration of their Genesis Drone Academy which will allow students to learn all the various aspects of using drone technology.
As an Army veteran, Capers said he first became interested in drone technology after seeing all of its uses after 9/11.
“During the War on Terror, I was introduced to drone technology and how it was used in wartime situations,” he said. “But since then, it’s become something just like a cellphone or the internet. It’s a piece of equipment that’s used throughout various sectors.”
Stone, a retired Williamsburg firefighter and a longtime volunteer with the school district, said Capers got him interested in the drone technology. Along with Jefferson, the student advancement coach at Lafayette High School, they realized there was an opportunity to bring the technology to students.
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All three men are also leaders in the program Men of Vision and Purpose, which is aimed at developing character and educational skills for students in Williamsburg-James City County.
Stone and Capers were awarded a grant from the WJCC Schools Foundation based on a MVP mentoring program called No Opportunity Wasted. Within that grant, the pair included a component addressing their desire to start a drone program that would create an after-school activity for students as well as integrate drone technology into science, technology, math and engineering courses.
The grant allowed them to buy four drones to start the academy and an additional two drones were donated by Tony Price, a Williamsburg local.
The program is set to start in the fall at James Blair and, once it receives approval from the administration, a program will also begin under Jefferson’s direction at Lafayette.
At the middle school level, a group of 15 students will meet for approximately two hours, twice a week. Stone said there will be an application process if more than 15 students want to participate. For the high school program there will be about 20 to 30 students.
Applications will be considered based on academic participation and other involvement at the school.
Capers said the program is designed to go through a four-tier system where the basic course will start in sixth grade and run through eighth grade. During that time, middle school students will learn the fundamentals of the technology and how to apply it to their learning environment.
The course will take a “zero-crawl-walk-run” method where students will begin at level zero with the fundamentals in middle school and then move to the crawl phase in eighth grade where they will participate in a Sea, Air and Land competition.
“There’s a curriculum that we created at every phase where the young people can learn the techniques of and responsibilities of having this powerful machine in their hands,” Stone said.
Then, when students go to high school they can move into the last two stages of the program where they can eventually take the Federal Aviation Administration Title 14 CFR Part 107 Certified Small Unmanned Aircraft System Test at the age of 16. Once a student passes the test, they can come back to the program to take classes to learn how to monetize their skills.
Currently, the resources for the program only allow it to be offered at the two schools in the district, but the leaders hope to be able to expand it.
“We didn’t want kids to come out and think that it was just a toy or videos,” Capers said. “If they go out as a [teenager] and they’re a certified drone pilot, they’ll have the opportunity to be involved in almost every aspect of the commercial industry and more.”
