Soaring to New Heights

In the past few years, we have been very fortunate to have had support, both locally and nationally, in providing us classroom technology. You may recall us writing about Donors Choose in the past. Through this website, we’ve been able to post projects for materials that will help us to learn in creative and engaging ways. Because of the generosity of others, we have received over $40,000 worth of items for our classroom in just the last four years!

Out of everything that we’ve had funded though, there was one that was completed this year that may just have the students more excited for technology class than every before. We had a project fully funded by Merck KGaA that brought us our very own DJI Phantom 3 Advanced quadcopter!

Although it’s been a bit colder around here lately, we managed to get a nice enough day to take our Phantom out  during our technology club one afternoon. We made sure that it was registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). We reviewed the regulations such as how we can’t allow it to fly at an altitude higher than 400 feet. We also took a look at the different controls so we knew how to fly it before we even took it outside.

We had so much fun flying it!  We headed out to the fields behind our school where we set everything up. We calibrated the GPS so that we had a “home” point for it in case we lost connection for some reason. That would’ve allowed it to return and land on its own. Once that was done, it was time for take-off!

Most students had an opportunity to fly it for a minute or so. Unfortunately the battery only gives us about 20 minutes of flight time and we don’t have an extra quite yet. Everyone seemed to really enjoy flying it and being able to watch a live feed of the video on the iPad hooked up to the controller. We’re really excited for some nicer weather this spring so that we can take it out again to learn so much more about flight!

In the past few years, we have been very fortunate to have had support, both locally and nationally, in providing us classroom technology. You may recall us writing about Donors Choose in the past. Through this website, we’ve been able to post projects for materials that will help us to learn in creative and engaging ways. Because of the generosity of others, we have received over $40,000 worth of items for our classroom in just the last four years!

Out of everything that we’ve had funded though, there was one that was completed this year that may just have the students more excited for technology class than every before. We had a project fully funded by Merck KGaA that brought us our very own DJI Phantom 3 Advanced quadcopter!

Although it’s been a bit colder around here lately, we managed to get a nice enough day to take our Phantom out  during our technology club one afternoon. We made sure that it was registered with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). We reviewed the regulations such as how we can’t allow it to fly at an altitude higher than 400 feet. We also took a look at the different controls so we knew how to fly it before we even took it outside.

We had so much fun flying it!  We headed out to the fields behind our school where we set everything up. We calibrated the GPS so that we had a “home” point for it in case we lost connection for some reason. That would’ve allowed it to return and land on its own. Once that was done, it was time for take-off!

Most students had an opportunity to fly it for a minute or so. Unfortunately the battery only gives us about 20 minutes of flight time and we don’t have an extra quite yet. Everyone seemed to really enjoy flying it and being able to watch a live feed of the video on the iPad hooked up to the controller. We’re really excited for some nicer weather this spring so that we can take it out again to learn so much more about flight!

Check out the gallery below to see pictures of us flying the quadcopter. Then, right below that you’ll find a video that you can watch that was taken with our DJI Phantom 3!

5 Comments

  1. Awesome drones. We’ve recently started our own class blog and would love it if you could visit and perhaps leave a comment so we can see people are visiting us from around the world. Thanks for your time. allsaintsyear8.edublogs.org

    Reply
  2. We loved finding out about drones on your blog. We’ve recently started our own class blog and would love it if you could visit and perhaps leave a comment so we can see people are visiting us from around the world. Thanks for your time. allsaintsyear8.edublogs.org

    Reply
  3. Dear Mr. Avery,
    I bring great news!!! I went to the movie theater and saw a poster for THE BFG and I am literally so excited I am going to see it opening day and I just can’t wait. I forgot to tell natalie and mike but anyways hope all is well!!!
    From,
    ARI Damery

    Reply
  4. We enjoyed reading your post and watching your video. We like the format of your blog, too.

    We wondered if the Phantom was hard to control at first. Can you control the angle of the camera?

    Thank you for sharing your experiences with us.

    Mrs. Hamman’s Class Blog

    Reply
    • Hi Mrs. Hamman’s Class!

      Thanks so much for stopping by and leaving a comment! I know it’s been a while since I’ve gotten to talk to your class. I used to be much better about getting to other people’s blogs and leaving comments but unfortunately I just haven’t had the same amount of time to do that as I used to! I’ll definitely make it a goal to check out your blog much more often!

      So the Phantom is actually really easy to control. Most students were nervous when they were going to fly it because they thought they were going to crash it. Even though there are two joysticks to control the movement and a separate wheel to control the camera, it really is much easier than you would think! They ended up being able to fly it with no problems. I haven’t let any of them have it take off or land it yet though. After some practice I’ll let them do that!

      Thanks again for stopping by. I’m looking forward to checking in with you soon!

      Sincerely,
      Mr. Avery

      Reply

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