A look into how drone soccer is impacting sports and STEM Education GUYANA’S development in technology has given rise to a number of new sports, ideas, and ambitious ventures. One of the most unique has to be Drone Soccer, a little-known but internationally recognised e-sport. It is also one of the sports that Guyana has been making its mark in, with a team competing in the Academic Drone Soccer World Cup last year. This week, to better understand the game of drone soccer, Pepperpot Magazine sat down with Jayden DeViera and Samantha Whyte, both from STEM Guyana. Focused on the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, STEM Guyana aims to introduce children from the age of seven to the various areas of STEM, in an attempt to use creativity to solve real-world problems. Currently, STEM Guyana hosts a number of after-school programmes, with more than 100 children focusing on areas such as programming, artificial intelligence, and drone operation. Long-time STEM participant and now teacher, Jayden DeViera says that STEM is more than all fun and games, and is one of the only ways he sees children learning to use teamwork, maths, and science to solve problems. “STEM is something I’ve always had an interest in. Because it is practical problem solving, I like to say. You know, in school we just, you know, we put the problem on a board and we have to put it in our books. But in STEM, you know, there’s a problem in the world, and then we put the solution into the world,” he shared. The programmes offered by STEM Guyana aim to help children develop a love for STEM, beginning with having them work with LEGO bricks and eventually moving on to complex computer programming. “I’ve been doing the teaching here for almost a year now. There are different courses. The introduction course is like LEGO-looking stuff to build. Then they move on from that into more coding. So they use Arduino boards to code. Then, from there, they move on to artificial intelligence. They learn the basics of artificial intelligence, the theory and concept behind it. And then they move on to Python, the basics of Python, which would allow them to create AI algorithms,” Jayden said. Although a lover of STEM and now a drone soccer teacher, Jayden says when he first heard about the sport, he was not a fan of the idea. “When I first heard about drone soccer, my first thought was: nerdy. Like it was something for people who could not play real soccer. But yeah, that was my first thought. I still think it’s nerdy, but that’s not a bad thing.” He added that he soon discovered drone soccer requires far more skill than he thought. “It does take skill. A very huge misconception is that it doesn’t. It takes a lot of skill to fly the drone, one. And then not only to fly the drone, but to fly it into the drone soccer goal — and work along with other drones as well, flying in the air.” Simply put, drone soccer is a team-based sport where players pilot small, lightweight drones inside protective cages, aiming to score points by flying their drone through a “goal” hoop suspended in the air. The game prioritises teamwork and tactics to make for an exciting, fast-paced experience. Giving further insight, Jayden stated, “Essentially, it’s two teams, two teams of five. And then there’s this giant goal hoop hanging. One player, one drone in the team is labelled a striker. And when that goes through the goal, it’s a point.” Drone soccer is just the newest addition to the growing list of e-sports the world — and now Guyana — has seen. Jayden believes that more sports like it are needed; not just as new hobbies, but as new realms for creative people and children to explore. “Guyana definitely needs more e-sports. Because, you know, it shows another realm for persons that want to play something competitive. They might not be athletic, but they might be good with video games and stuff like that. So this is definitely a realm that they need more of.” Operations Analyst at STEM Guyana, Samantha Whyte, who has been a part of the team for the last two years, says the after-school programmes offer so much more than just STEM. “We see so many shy children when they come here. We want kids to express themselves, not to be afraid to be their own person.” She further added, “Public speaking is something that we try to promote, because I think we know what it’s like. Most kids nowadays, they’re not afraid to say their mind. So we love.” STEM Guyana’s lessons focus on blending creativity with problem-solving and, eventually, complex subjects like mathematics. As Samantha explained, “And then when they do realise it, we’ve got to find different ways to make children like something. It’s not the same. We’ve got to find a different teaching style for students. We don’t want them to come here and feel like, oh, it’s school. When you come here, you feel like it’s an escape from home, but you’re still learning something. It’s an escape from school.” STEM Guyana does not ignore the basics of traditional subjects, but rather finds new ways of implementing them. “You’re still learning something. This is what we want it to be. We don’t want it to be a normal, regular lesson. Like, oh my God, I can’t believe my mum would bring me here. When you come through that door, you must be excited to do and build a robot coded from another thing we like to do. So I really like showing them. Maybe they might not learn that in school, but they come here and they’re learning that.” As drone soccer and other innovative activities gain traction, the work being done at STEM Guyana is helping shape a new generation of thinkers, builders, and future professionals. And for many of these young minds, it all starts with a flying robot in a hoop.