Drone Racing! STEM Applications
In briefAI summary — tap to read
Caleb LaPlante presented the Southern Oregon Air Academy's drone racing program, which introduces middle and high school students to STEM through competitive drone piloting using simulators and increasingly advanced aircraft. The program builds toward careers in commercial drone operations and aerospace technology, with students progressing from 2-inch racing drones to 5-inch high-performance aircraft capable of 100+ mph, culminating in FAA licensing and internships with local businesses.
Key takeaways
- Drone racing programs use progressive technology—starting with safe 2-inch drones in simulators before advancing to 100+ mph racing drones—to teach STEM skills while building community and competition spirit.
- Students learn complex skills including flight control, radio frequency management, and equipment customization, with opportunities to gain FAA licenses and internships in commercial drone and aerospace industries by high school sophomore year.
- The program intentionally recruits from diverse school types (traditional schools, charter schools, homeschools, Civil Air Patrol) and saw approximately 22–23% female participation, demonstrating that inclusive STEM opportunities attract young women when made accessible.
- Drone racing scales effectively at the state and regional level, functioning like traditional sports with qualifying rounds and championships, and can operate virtually during disruptions like COVID-19.
- Unmanned aerial technology careers are expanding across commercial, military, and space exploration sectors, including NASA missions to the Moon (2024) and Mars (2035), offering long-term career pathways for youth.
About Caleb LaPlanteCaleb LaPlante is a member of the Rotary Club of Silicon Valley and founder of the Southern Oregon Air Academy, a three-year-old nonprofit organization offering flight instruction, summer camps, and drone racing programs for middle and high school students in Southern Oregon.
AI-generated from the meeting recording — AI can make mistakes, so check the recording for anything important.
Meeting for the week of August 03 - August 09, 2020
This Meeting at a Glance:
Program: Drone Racing! STEM Applications
Speaker: Caleb LaPlante
Is this your first time to visit us? If so, welcome to our weekly online meeting! To complete our meeting, please continue reading from here to the bottom of this page.Each Monday our week’s meeting is posted early in the morning, U.S. Pacific Time. These meetings are designed so that you can read and watch what we post anytime during the week. The entire meeting takes about 60 minutes to complete, with the video conference recording of the program being the bulk of the time.Note that you can easily read this meeting with your favorite device, so feel free to take our meeting on the go with you. Please also make sure to complete the attendance form at the bottom and leave a comment. Enjoy!
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President Raquel
Guests, we are happy to have you join us this week!
As we see it, our flexibility as an online, asynchronous club allows a special type of service to Rotarians around the world: we make it easier for anyone to strive for and maintain 100% attendance. That keeps you engaged with Rotary's events and ideas, and provides a moment of inspiration for devoting your creativity, talents, and resources to good causes.
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Of the things we think, say or do
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Is it the TRUTH?
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Is it FAIR to all concerned?
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Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FRIENDSHIPS?
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Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?
Weekly inspiration
Every week we start our meetings with a short video highlighting innovation, inspiration, entrepreneurship, or social change.
The Dinghy Derby is one of the world’s craziest boat races. Held in Riverland, Australia, racers zip through narrow creeks full of obstacles like overhanging trees and submerged logs. You likely don’t picture a dinghy when you think of a race boat. But these little aluminum boats have been transformed into speed machines with 90 horsepower motors. Dinghy racer Amanda Williamson tells us about the humble origins of the extreme sport and takes us on a wild ride.
World of Rotary
Rotary’s peace initiatives at a tipping point
Through a Rotarian's Lens
Sometimes a photo can capture an amazing moment. In this section Member Keith Marsh shares his incredible photography!
If you'd like to submit a photo for this section please contact Keith.
For this photo of the Comet Neowise, I drove to Lake Berryessa in Napa County to get away from the light pollution of the Bay Area and to be assured of clear skies. On July 25th, the comet moved closer to the Big Dipper so I included both in the same image.
Learn something new
This section is curated by members Shags Shagrin and aims to teach our members and guests something new, fun and useful! If you have any ideas on a fun trick or skill you'd like to share please contact Shags.
8 Amazing Watermelon Ideas
It's watermelon season!!! I love it cold, grilled, in salads with some tomato & basil & balsamic vinegar, and I use the thicker rinds (peeled) to make pickles! Here are some other ideas for you. I'd start with seedless ones to save even more time. Note the disclaimer!
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Click here to fill out The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley Service Survey
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We hold our meetings online, but we do regular service projects and social events in the Silicon Valley! This section is updated every week with our upcoming events. We welcome guests to all of the events and service projects listed here.
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More events coming soon! All events are open to guests, unless otherwise mentioned. Feel free to join us! If you ever have questions, please email inquiries@siliconvalleyrotary.com
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Happy dollars is an opportunity to share something positive that has happened in your life whether it is personal or business. Think of it as your opportunity to brag a little, but also put a little bit into a karma jar. The money donated through happy dollars is put to charitable use, and the message that you leave for happy dollars will be posted in our online meeting the following week for the entire week for folks to see! (Pending that it’s appropriate!)
Here are the happy dollars contributions from last week!
This section is usually updated on the early hours of Saturday, so contributions made over the weekend may not be listed here.
Monique Ziesenhenne made a $25 donation.
So happy to be here! Evidently, I didn't attend last week, though in my mind, I thought I had...must have been the copy of The Rotarian that I read! Please contribute to Club General Fund.
Rory Olsen made a $20 donation.
We've made up for the drought with rain in some quantity everyday. My cats are spending lots of time with me to get over the rain.
Felix Pretscheck made a $20 donation.
Holidays ahead! ;-) Please apply my donation to a club project.
Selected comments
Every week at the bottom of our meetings, there is a comments section for members and guests to tell us what they enjoyed about the meeting or to ask questions to the speaker. We select a few comments every week from last week’s meeting to be featured during this week’s meeting.
Here are the comments selected from last week’s meeting.
Tanya Martin said:
I get something out of all the presentations, but this one was definitely a game-changer. You have to look at your loses as opportunities and look to make opportunities out of situations and information. You always have to be alert and continuous send vibes out to the universe.
J. Perez said:
This was my first Rotary meeting. (Thanks, Rushton!) Christian Busch's presentation on serendipity lit up my brain! I bought a Kindle copy of his book, read the intro and learned about the car accident that was one of his triggers. Looking forward to learning more from Christian's The Serendipity Mindset and from the Rotary Club. (I didn't know you helped people become better cooks!) Thanks for providing an enlightening evening!
Felix P said:
This was really inspiring! I was not familiar with this concept before, and I liked the kind of structured approach to creating opportunities and the positive expectation towards the unexpected. I suppose this is worth taking a second look outside the meeting. Thanks for inviting Christian as a speaker!
Be sure to leave a comment at the end of this week’s meeting after you watch the program below, and perhaps you’ll see your comment featured next week!
Program: Drone Racing! STEM Applications
Speaker: Caleb LaPlante
Every week we bring to you a new program on innovation, entrepreneurship, and education, and how those contribute to service to others. Special thanks to member Roger Plested for leading our club's Programs Committee in finding us amazing speakers each week.
The Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley seeks to explore perspectives on service from across the world. The views of the speakers in our programs are their own, and unless stated otherwise, are not necessarily reflective of the views of our eClub nor Rotary International.
If you have an idea for a cool speaker, please feel free to reach out to them directly or submit THIS FORM so our Program Committee can contact them!
Professional drone racing is broadcast on TV and Twitter. But few viewers really know how it works or how to get involved and grow the sport. Caleb LaPlante is no expert (he's not even a drone racing pilot himself) but he has pioneered a student-based drone racing league in his local area while working under the non-profit organization Southern Oregon Air Academy. He'll share his experiences and what he's learned about the value of the sport for youth through exposure to possibilities with STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math).
Caleb LaPlante is the founder of Southern Oregon Air Academy, a nonprofit organization introducing students to aviation and aerospace careers. Caleb was also most recently the Director of Unmanned programs and pioneered the organization's launch of their Drone Racing League for middle and high school students. Members and guests, welcome Rotary eClub of Silicon Valley member Caleb LaPlante!
Additional Resources
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Upcoming program recording schedule
All of our guest speakers and programs are recorded live online over Zoom video conference. We welcome members and guests to join us in one of these upcoming recordings. Recordings are approximately 30 minutes long and are subject to change without notice.
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