Kids get excited about drones and the classroom is a great place to explore this curiosity. Drones help you teach students about career opportunities in technology, and they provide lessons in coding, science, art, engineering, technology, and mathematics. However, if you’ve never used one before, figuring out how to bring it into your classroom lesson planning can feel overwhelming. Take these 7 steps to develop a drone lesson plan and remove the anxiety!
1. Research
There are many educational drones available. To find the one that’s right for you, think about where and how you will use it. You’ll also want to consider what apps are necessary for using the drone. You can learn a lot about this by watching YouTube videos. This also helps you understand and answer questions from your students.
2. Know Your Drone
Before you decide on which drone to purchase, learn more about the coding application it uses. Depending on where your students are at with their coding experience, you may want something like drag-and-drop coding blocks, you may opt for a more advanced, text-based coding language.
3. Purchase Spare Parts
Don’t wait until you run out to purchase spare technology supplies. Consider which items you are likely to use the most and purchase extra ones ahead of time. Batteries are one item where it seems you can never have too many. If you use the drone for multiple classes each day, you may need to have one battery charging while using another for the current class.
4. Get Organized
Keeping drones in a designated area when not in use is one of the simplest ways to ensure your classroom stays organized and nothing gets lost. It’s also a good idea to have labeled bins nearby for spare robotics supplies. Have one for fully-charged batteries and one for empty batteries so you always have enough of them charged and ready to go for each class.
5. Start with Safety
Student safety is the most important thing to take care of in every classroom. Ensure students wear safety glasses when using the drones, and anyone with long hair has it tied back. In addition, teaching students about safely handling drones, and what can go wrong if they don’t, before they ever touch one, is the best way to minimize risks.
6. Create Teams
Whether working indoors or outdoors, ensure each team has enough space so that one drone’s signal doesn’t interfere with another drone’s controller. Assign roles to each student and have them alternate throughout the lesson so everyone gets experience with coding, controlling, and troubleshooting.
7. Make it Real
Show students how they could use drones in their future careers by connecting the lessons to real-world issues. Base lessons on airborne package delivery, creating video for advertising, or improving structural engineering. Consider what would be developmentally appropriate for your students. If you teach across grade levels, have older students design a program for younger students to learn about drones.
Find Your Perfect Classroom Drone Today
Drones are a great STEM tool for teaching students about how accelerometers, gyroscopes, magnetometers, and barometers work while also developing their critical thinking, communication, and collaboration skills. There are many options for educational drones, and you can start your search for the best school tech supply right here with Midwest Technology Products! Not quite sure what you’re looking for, or have other questions? Please don’t hesitate to give us a call at 1-800-591-8403 or reach out online!