Arizona STEM
Acceleration Project
Drones & STEM Take Off
Drones & STEM Take Off
A 4th grade STEM lesson
Robert Canchola
7/20/2023
What is a Drone?
Drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles, are frequently used as a part of military, governmental and civil operations. Now, the devices also are being used as learning tools in a classroom.
Notes for Teachers
List of Materials:
Drone Equipment - Microdrones, tablets, safety glasses and landing mats.
Pool noodles, hoops, cones or other building materials.
Science Standards:
4.P4U1.1: Develop and use a model to demonstrate how a system transfers energy from one object to another even when the objects are not touching.
4.P4U1.2: Develop and use a model that explains how energy is moved from place to place through electric currents.
Science and Engineering Practices
4.RL.1 Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text.
4.RL.3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).
4.W.7 Conduct short research projects that build knowledge through investigation of different aspects of a topic.
4.SL.1 Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions (one-on-one, in groups, and teacher-led) with diverse partners on grade 4 topics and texts, building on others’ ideas and expressing their own clearly
Objectives:
Today we will collaborate and communicate effectively with our peers to complete an engineering design challenge, building an obstacle course for a drone.
Today students will be able to: To use manual flight of a drone to navigate a series of obstacles.
• To use positive encouragement within the drone team to complete delivery of seeds to the forest.
Today we will explain how drones are being used to impact the sustainability of forest.
Today we will watch Domtar Use of Drones in Forestry and Using senseFly Mapping Drones to Improve Forest Management on Youtube
Objectives
Students research one aspect of forestry and report back to the whole class. Alternatively, students can conduct research on:
• Digital systems in forestry
• Barcodes for tracking timber
• Automated Optimisers
• GPS Tracking Systems
• Drones in Forestry
PLANTING Distribute seedlings and seeds in a fast and efficient manner
RESTORATION Conduct rapid surveys that reduce the cost and time for land restoration
MAPPING Secure 2D and 3D mapping of forest carbon storage, and boundaries and monitoring
DISEASE Check for forest pests and diseases
Agenda (60 minutes)
View the Drones in Forestry video and write a report on how Digital Systems are used in forestry and for sustainability.
Forestry Story Map activity with students.
Students draw, build and set up a Drone obstacle course. Have students fly the drones.
Calculate the area and the perimeter of the forest in feet and inches. Convert to meters.
Drones
Can I fly my micro drone indoors at school?The short answer is yes if you are an educational institution (school, university etc), and not flying in a hazardous manner.�We recommend clear flight lanes, safety areas to fly behind (like lines on the ground – doesn’t need to be drone cages), safety glasses and safety briefings at the start of the activity.
Instructions
In a group of 2-4, engineer a flight plan to travel through the obstacle barriers and deliver seeds to the forest.
Lesson
Students design their flight path using drawing tools and take it in turns to step out their mission to determine distance and types of turns required by their drone to complete the mission.
Discuss with students which flight path would be most efficient to gather the data. For example, should they try their drone in a spiral format, use backwards and forwards movements as a lawnmower would to mow a yard or use a zig-zag formation? Students can step out their planned path to see which is most efficient to cover most ground with shortest distance traveled (to save battery on the drone).
• Remind students to add crosses in their mission path to indicate where they intend to photograph the forest or tree.
How do we assess our work?
We evaluate our final iteration ability to meet requirements and stay within constraints
Assessment
Flight plan on paper, all safety procedures followed.
Drone navigated the obstacle course, surveyed the area for health of forest, delivered seeds to forest and returned to base.
ELA Assessment
Did the students use three sources when investigating how drones are used in forestry?
Did the student investigate 2 of the following 4 areas:
• Geographic Information Systems (GIS)
• UAVs (drones)
• Data capture
• Hazards
Notes and data record in their STEM Field Book
Differentiation
One way to differentiate in this lesson is to provide some groups a template for their first flight plan and use a very basic drone and obstacle course.
Another option is to provide a task such as drawing the forest, insects and landscape that the drone will be flying over.
Remediation
Extension/Enrichment
Students who are successful right away can plan how they would code to have the drone fly itself to accomplish a real-world task.
Using your app of choice (for example, Tello Edu or Droneblocks), students visually program sections of their path and test the code iteratively until they have coded the whole mission.
Use Minecraft to recreate the forest, our flight plan, and re seeding of the area.