Naperville North students show off remote-controlled vehicles they designed, built

From boats and planes to cars and quadcopters, pre-engineering students at Naperville North High School spent roughly 13 weeks designing and building their own remote-controlled vehicles.

Those projects recently were on display during a research and design showcase in the learning commons.

Getting a remote-controlled vehicle to work properly is extensive work, teacher Jason Ryan said, and it requires the use of complex technology such as 3-D printers, laser engravers and cutters, a CNC machine, and a vacuum former that creates a plastic exterior for the vehicles.

What makes the project unique, he said, is the lack of guidance given to the student teams throughout the process.

"We give them no help," Ryan said. "We don't know how they work, which makes it the most authentic learning experience for them because they have to use the skills that were shown throughout the year."

It also requires them to use trial and error, he said. How do you get the wheels on a car to stay upright? How do you program a quadcopter so it'll hover in the air? It was up to the students to figure out what works and what doesn't.

The roughly 90 students involved also had to analyze their work using physics and math, Ryan said.

"It's a very unique experience," he said. "And the best thing is, they all did this themselves. They taught themselves how the electronics work."