Google brought together over 100 students from 16 different local area schools in Iowa and in a “celebration of science, technology, engineering and math skills” pitted them against challenges. Google provided each challenger with a $30 kit and each challenger had to construct and operate their own solutions.
The fifth-annual Anti-Gravity Games, sponsored by Google, brought more than 100 students from 16 area schools to the campus of Iowa Western Community College to test their mechanical, piloting and programming skills in controlling their homemade drones through obstacle courses.
It was a celebration of science, technology, engineering and math skills. Students were pitted against challenges armed with only a $30 kit, provided by Google, that the students had to construct and operate themselves.
In one area, students were busy setting up. They were tweaking their designs or repairing faulty parts as their quadcopters lay on the operating table like patients prepped for surgery — wires instead of veins, microprocessors for a nervous system and propeller blades for wings.
“Our first run wasn’t so hot, so we’re fixing things right now,” said Lewis Central High School sophomore Cameron Fitzgerald as he labored over their drone with Cameron Houston, a senior.
