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Drones
By welcoming drones into the classroom, we develop a new way of making learning more fun, innovative and interactive. Drones also provide students with the opportunity to learn about technology that they may wish to base their future career on. We consider many ways drones are being utilised in education:
Drones Developing Motor Skills and Hand-Eye Coordination
Hand-eye coordination is a crucial skill that is taught amongst the majority of young educational programmes. From netball to tennis, sports were once thought to be the best way to improve hand-eye coordination. Drones require a lot of focus to use while navigating from one destination to another and drones can help develop depth perception by requiring the user to judge the distance in space that the drone is flying.
Drones Teaching Coding
Learning how to code can be less intimidating if students use drones for hands-on learning experience. Many educators are using drones to engage students into writing programs that allow drones to conduct autonomous flights. This can be very useful to teach computational thinking, and help younger students realise the great power of those skills.
Drones Teaching the Laws of Physics
Flying drones can provide very real examples of how physical laws work such as Newtons 3rd law for example ‘an object at rest will remain at rest unless acted upon by an outside force’. To teach the first law of motion, we can demonstrate how, if no controls are pressed, the drone stays in place. The drone cannot hover or move unless the controls are used to power the motor and run the propellers – an outside force. In this drone-focused way, students learn the laws of physics in a fun and interactive way.
Drones Building Intellectual and Creative Skills
Some students learn best by destroying and rebuilding. By taking a drone apart and putting it back together, students learn how to build and learn through trial and error. It builds patience and shows a hands-on approach to the mechanics of drones.