First Ever Aero Games Held At RSU In Claremore

More than 150 Green Country kids reached for the stars, quite literally on Saturday. The very first Aero Games, for students in northeast Oklahoma, were held Saturday at Rogers State University in Claremore with the help of Google and Tulsa Air and Space Museum.

"Science, it's just really, really, really interesting," said Adam Stringfellow; Sperry High School student.

With his team by his side, Adam Stringfellow worked to guide a remote control plane to victory.

"It was the first one to go through without hitting the sides; we were like, "Yes! We have the most broken plane, but it was fun," said Adam Stringfellow.

Students from about 20 different schools showed up to be a part of the competition.

From rock launching to blimp creations- the students were able to get plenty of hands-on experience and at times had no choice but to get creative.

"We've had students planes break and they've have to innovated and overcome unique challenges in order to get their planes working again," said Mike Wooten; Google Oklahoma Operations Manager.

The Aero Games was an idea that Google Oklahoma Operations Manager, Mike Wooten came up with. He says promoting Science, Technology, Math and Engineering [STEM] to Oklahoma students is a priority for Google.

One of Oklahoma's natural resources, wind, was incorporated in the competition.

An aerospace expert with the Tulsa Air and Space Museum built a wind tunnel in his garage to help teach the kids different theories of aerodynamics.

The event also brought in special guest, Tracy Drain, a Flight System Engineer with NASA. Tracy's working on a mission now to learn more about the solar system's formation, by sending a spacecraft to Jupiter.

For her, critical thinking is imperative.

"Don't try to memorize formulas and memorize equations, you need to know the basic fundamentals so you can apply those to new problems and figure out how to solve them," said Tracy Drain.

Advice that can hopefully launch this students into a successful future.