'Drone' education for Brooklyn students

NEW YORK (FOX 5 NEWS) - Drones may seem like an expensive toy, but they can also be a powerful teaching tool. A school in Brooklyn is using gliders to teach kids about drones and spark their interest in science and technology.

Hundreds of Central-Brooklyn Elementary students are bringing flight to life as part of 4-H National Youth Science Day. Developed by Cornell University Cooperative Extension, the hands-on engineering design challenge featured three activity stations.

Lucinda Randolph-Benjamin, the program leader, said children are learning about how to code a drone, how to do remote sensing, and how to fly the airplanes with the little cameras beneath. As students tested their own gliders, they also learned how drone technology is being used to solve real world problems.

The 4-H National Youth Science Day event is one of many happening nationwide. This October, more than 100,000 students will take part in the drone challenge.