“Like watching for sharks and hot spots on volcanoes,” Lawler said.

Lawler, along with four peers in Mindy Waldera’s Talented and Gifted (TAG) class at Cooper Elementary, have been doing a deep dive into drones, coding, and careers that utilize the flying technology.

“As a district TAG team, we are constantly pursuing exciting and challenging ways to inspire our students’ learning,” said Waldera. “We discussed the idea of teaching a drone unit. I was able to connect with a company that offers drone curriculum and supplies for a variety of age levels. Once materials were ordered and received, we began our drone learning journey.”

Students started the unit learning how to successfully fly a drone and avoid a crash. The students used an app on their iPads with live on-screen toggles and flight coding.

-Submitted photo
Pictured from left are Aubriella Schliske, Terek Lawler, Sterling Rubin, Ruby Brockbank, and Jackson Angstrom. The students are part of Mindy Waldera’s Talented and Gifted class at Cooper Elementary School. They are learning about drones, coding, and careers that utilize drones.

“I thought you could just fly them around,” said student Sterling Rubin. “But after coding, I learned that you could do lots of stuff.”

While learning to code and to fly their drones, the students also focused on measurements and math to ensure their flights and programs were precise.

“They were very accurate with their measurements to make sure they achieved drone flight success,” said Waldera. “When instances came up that were not successful, students persevered to achieve the successful flight mission they were aiming for.”

As part of the unit, the students used a drone landing pad to practice take off and landing. Virtual joysticks are also provided in the iPad app.

“The most challenging part for students was to pick up the sense of what way the drone was facing, even though the student might be facing a different way,” said Waldera. “This would affect the directions they were giving the drone. Our students never cease to amaze me. They caught on so quickly.”

-Submitted photo
Sterling Rubin prepares to launch his drone in Mindy Waldera’s Talented and Gifted class at Cooper Elementary School.

“I learned to yaw, do 360 degree turns and flips,” said Lawler. “Using measurements to predict what moves to do, too. We learned how to use an app on an iPad to control the drones.”

“You drag the block and it will align with another block,” said Angstrom. “Then you hit go and it will do the command. We went through the guide book and we went with the lesson on how to navigate a drone and how the scenario went.”

Once the students learned to fly their drone, Waldera then focused the unit on different real-world careers that utilize drones, including fighting fires, volcano activity monitoring, flight training, coastline shark watch, and even delivering medicine to remote areas.

“They were fun and challenging in different ways,” said student Ruby Brockbank of the different scenarios.

Students also utilized their drone flying knowledge to build a structure that resembles real world drone tasks. According to Waldera, students were able to use the structures to fly their drones through the structure or around it, depending on the scenario. For the shark watch scenario, the students even drew the sharks that they would be watching for to alert the Coast Guard.

“I like them,” said student Jackson Angstrom. “They were pretty fun.”

“You have to be good at flying a drone because if you’re not, you’re not going to be good at the scenarios,” added Rubin.

The structures created included a two-story building that sustained damage in a flood. The students used the drones to assess the damage from the air. They also created a volcano structure to represent Mount Erebus. The drones were used to circle the volcano and take pictures of fumaroles that might become dangerous. Another scenario included a landscape resembling a forest and mountain. The drones were used to retrieve medical supplies from a medical facility and then flew over the mountain and through the forest to deliver medical supplies to the remote village of Kibeho, Rwanda.

“We learned how to save people’s lives as we learned how to use drones,” said student Aubriella Schliske.

According to Waldera, the drone learning unit was so successful and interesting to students that she plans to continue the unit next year.

“The drone unit is a great way to keep students engaged while also providing learning opportunities that are challenging, cross-curricular, and require use of critical thinking skills,” said Waldera.

“I’m so excited about this,” said Angstrom. “I’ve flown a drone before, but I crashed, so I was kind of worried.”

“I thought it was really cool that we got to do drones in school and got to do stuff that we’ve never got to do before,” said Lawler.