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The Arizona STEM Acceleration Project

My Drone and Me Lesson 2 Day 2

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My Drone and Me Lesson 2 Day 2

A [5-8] grade STEM lesson

Brian Piendl

Date 1/28/2024

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Notes for teachers

If you ran out of time in the previous lesson, please give the students about 10 minutes of “Free” flight time today. Allow them to explore the controls a little bit get used to the movement of the drone.

They’ll need the experience for today’s activity.

Also, now would be a good time to start stockpiling extra propeller blades.

The Times on the agenda are a rough estimate. I’ve had this lesson finish in a day and I've had it take 2 days.

The times are all in the realm of “ish.” It depends on how deep discussions go, how much students experiment, how fast/slow they draw.

If you prepare diagrams for the students ahead of time this lesson can be completed much quicker.

Click here for Day 1

List of Materials

Notebook
Pen/Pencil
Drone with Battery
Spare Propellers (Complete Set of 4 per group)
Drone Propeller Pry Tool (One per group) or wrench

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Science Standards

Arizona Science Standards:

6.P4U2.5 Analyze how humans use technology to store (potential) and/or use (kinetic) energy.

Science and Engineering Practices:

Obtain, evaluate and communicate information

Technology Standards

ISTE Standards: 15B—Students collect data or identify relevant data sets, use digital tools to analyze them, and represent data in various ways to facilitate problem-solving and decision-making.

(The propellers and their arrangement are the data, they represent it through their charts, and problem solve drone issues as they arise

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Objectives: I will create a diagram of my drone, and with my partner hypothesize what all the parts are

I will be able to accurately identify where each of the drones propellers go and how they are organized

I will be able to replace the propeller correctly

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Agenda

Gather Drones and Materials 3 minutes
Diagram and Label Drones - 25 Minutes
Practice Replacing Batteries - 3 Minutes

Set expectations for class - 5-7 Minutes

Practice replacing Propellers - 5-10 Minutes
Propeller Experiment - 15-20 Minutes

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Understanding Your Tello…

Bottom View

Top View

Back View

Side View

Objective: You and your partner will Diagram your drone from FOUR different points of view.

Draw the drone from the Top, Back Bottom and Side views as seen above
Label the diagrams with what you and your partner think each of the parts are based on your flight experience (Yesterday, or Today)

If you were absent, as you examine the drone make an educated guess as to what you think the part does

Step 1: Draw your diagrams first, all four views, Top, Back, Side, Bottom.

Step 2: Connect to your drone and take flight. Allow it to hover in one place.

Step 3: Observe your drone, based on what you see, label the parts of the drone on your diagram.

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Tello Drone Diagram

Propeller Guard

Camera and Indicator Light

Propeller

Antenna and Landers

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Tello Drone Diagram

Battery

Motor

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Tello Drone Diagram

Vision Position Sensors/Height Sensors

Bluetooth Button

Micro USB Port

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To Take the Battery Out:

While the Battery is in the Drone pinch the end of the battery (Put your fingers on top and bottom)
Pull Backwards

Insert picture/gif of pulling out Battery, and Putting it back in.

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How to Charge Battery:

The most important aspect of charging the batteries is making sure they are put into the blocks Correctly.
The Four notches on the bottom of the battery will always line up with the metal prongs on the charger

Insert picture/gif of pulling out Battery, and Putting it back in.

Advice for Batteries:

Create a section of your room that is dedicated to charging, so the students always know where to put dead batteries and where to get them from.

When you venture to a flying zone Bring two buckets with you.

Empty bucket with Red bottom for dead batteries
Bucket full of charged batteries with Green bottom

I do this so that batteries don’t get mixed up. When they do, it wastes a lot of time and energy for the students.

Every day we fly I put a different group of students in charge of this task. They are responsible for bringing the red and green buckets out AND when we return to class for taking all the batteries out of the red bucket and placing them in the chargers.

The students will pick up the tasks pretty quickly because, if they don't have charged batteries, they can't fly.

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Let’s be real…we are going to crash,things are going to break…

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The most common break is the propeller

Materials Required:

Drone with battery out

Propeller Key/Wrench

Notebook�
Dry Erase Marker

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1)Put your drone on the table facing away from you

2)On the Table Write the Letters A,B,C,D as shown here

A

D

C

B

Front

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Set all propellers so that they are all facing the same direction. (Here they are diagonal, you can turn them horizontal or vertical)

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With your partner(s): Make some observations about the shape of the blades. Write down what you notice in your notebook.

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Check Notes Add Tag Line Needed for this Class

A

D

C

B

Front

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Adding and Removing Propellers

The linked video is very simple and clear demonstration about how to add and remove propellers. This video is from DJI, the creators of the Tello. If you have issues with Youtube at school, this video is available for download from Youtube instead of streaming.

Before you ever do any work on something using electricity, always disconnect, in our case take out the battery.
Instruct the students to take turns removing the propellers. As student remove them instruct the students to keep all four propellers in the same spot on their desk.
Advise the students to ask for help if a propeller is stuck. Students can break the motor or wrench if they try to force it
Using their own diagram, what they learned on the previous slide, ask the students to put the propellers back on the drone in the correct order.

Walk around the room and do quick check for understandings
Students who finish quickly, I tend to turn into student teachers, I ask them to observe and help groups that may be struggling or taking a long time.

If you do this it is important for the student teachers to understand that their role is not to complete the task for the other students but to offer advice/assistance.

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Does the propeller order really matter? Let’s find out

Question: What do you think will happen if you put the propeller blades on in a different order? (not diagonally matched)

Predictions: (As a class or inside their groups write down some current thoughts about what you think will happen)

Rearrange the blades so that the match horizontally, or vertically (you can try both)

Observations:

Propose the question: What do you think will happen if we change the order of the blades so that they don’t match Diagonally?

Give groups 2 minutes to discuss the questions and write down their predictions in their notebooks. Ask them to be as specific as possible.

Share thoughts out as a class and record their answers on the board or on this slide.

The Next Slide has examples of Incorrect Horizontal and Vertical Alignment if your class needs the support.

Give students about 3 minutes to rearrange the blades of their drone.

After their three Minutes are up, take the students outside (With their notebooks) or where you fly your drones. �
Let the students try to fly and record their observations in their notebook. �
When they finish, try a different organization, and fly again. Does the drone behave differently than the first time? �
Once all the students have finished, bring students back inside.��
Run through your battery protocol again.

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Horizontal Alignment

Vertical Alignment

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Assessment: Ticket out the door

Why is it important that the drone propellers/blades are matched diagonally?

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Differentiation

Instead of having the students draw the diagrams themselves, print off the 2 diagrams that have a majority of the parts you want them to understand in view.

Create lines for the parts you want them to label, or even give them a word bank to work with

Remediation

Extension/Enrichment

If you are confident in the students keeping propellers organized:

Allow students try mismatching propellers in other ways like:

Three of the same blade on one drone
All four the same?
Make sure they predict what will happen

I am also a proponent of making students into teachers, allowing them to share their expertise with other groups.