CUE STEAMPunk Flying Drones Land in Campbell Union School District!

I was so excited when the CUE STEAMPunk Drone Suitcase arrived in Campbell! I had heard about these awesome Parrot Flying Drones, but had never actually used one. Thanks to the CUE STEAMPunk Mobile Labs and Parrot, we were able to test four of them out for FREE!
Before they arrived, I began planning which schools I would use them with and which content areas they could be best integrated with. Thanks to CUE STEAMPunk Teacher Advisor, Brian Briggs, I was able to quickly find a few lesson ideas on his Drone Academy: http://rockstardrone.weebly.com/
With our STEAM students at Monroe Middle School, we had them start with Mission 1: Speed and Distance. Students used the Tickle App to predict and measure the different distances that Parrot would travel, when adjusting the time and speed. It was amazing to watch the students eyes light up in both fear and excitement as they programmed the drones to take off for the first time!
Next, I took the drones to visit the students at Castlemont Elementary School. We worked on Mission 2: Bullseye there, with the goal of reaching the center of the target. It was really interesting to observe our students brainstorm with their teams different strategies to adjust the time needed to fly both vertically and horizontally. Some groups used trial and error, some measured with rulers, and some role played with Parrot counting the number of seconds. Spatial problem solving at its best!
We also tried to engineer Parrot to deliver paper plates for lunch (since we were in the cafeteria), but soon found that the plates were too heavy. The students came up with some great prototypes anyway!
Learn more about the CUE STEAMPunk Mobile Labs Program here: http://www.cue.org/steampunk or follow on twitter #cuesteampunk A big thank you to Jon Corippo and CUE STEAMPunk for giving us our first flying drone experience!

Comments

  1. Anonymous4/28/2016

    Julie: I just discovered your blog and am excited for new ideas. I am a TSA for Instructional Tech (K-8) in Berkeley and have a blog as well. picrust.wordpress.com Thanks for these great ideas, especially for the lower grades.

    ReplyDelete

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