Heather Wright/The Independent

Students at Holy Rosary School in Wyoming want to show the possibilities of technology.

The Grade 7 and 8 classes are hosting the Wyoming Sky-Tech Invitational Saturday to show the community how technology can be used in rural areas, including the agriculture industry.

Robert Walicki, a secondary curriculum consultant with the St. Clair District Catholic School Board, has been working with the students to create the event which will include drone obstacle courses and drone soccer. They’ll also show family, friends and the community autonomous flights using their own custom code.

Walicki says the students were so excited by the technology, they wanted to show the community how it could be used.

“We have the actual people that do agricultural usage with drones,” he says adding the film crew from the movie “We Lend a Hand” will be show how their technology works.

There will also be a virtual Career Lab where people can use virtual reality to experience high tech careers as well as an exhibit of the history of flight.

“We have concerns about technology in the classrooms, right? But this takes a totally different use of the technology, and it is so broadly applicable right, from inspections in a powerful plants to farm uses,” says Walicki.

And he says, it can open the student’s eyes to technology jobs at home in the agriculture industry.

“When you compare a cost of an (agricultural) sprayer to a drone that can do the same thing, it’s like several hundred thousand dollars for the sprayer to $65,000 for a drone, so from an economic standpoint, yeah.”

Walicki says the drones and the science behind them also teach problem solving skills. “Those skills are transferable anywhere, right? And it is used technology from real estate to everything.”

The free event is at the Plympton-Wyoming Fairgrounds Saturday April 11 from 9 am to noon and is open to anyone in the community.