Mentoring – Cecil Andrews College

Over the past two months , I have been using Lego drones to engage a year 10 class at Cecil Andrews College – Perth.

The drones are fun to fly ,but the students have to do several tasks in order to get the drone ready for flying.

• Assemble the drone structural skeleton – lego style.
• Place the propellor motor in the correct physical sequence to ensure motor rotation is in the right direction – clockwise or anticlockwise.
• Place the correct propellor on each motor – there are two types with a different pitch angle
• Mount the battery and connect the motor to the specified electrical outlet and ensure the drone controller is in the correct orientation

A detailed book of instructions is given to each team with a maximum of two strudents.

Many things can go wrong and the student understands that any issues are the result of their actions.

Impatience is shown by the many . They blame the failure of the drone to fly on external issues and it is not their fault.

Most students do not read or follow the book instructions and do not succeed on their first or second attempt.

They are required to analyse and fix the issue – some guidance is given but they must do all the assembly and test their finished product.

Outcomes

• Read the instructions and focus on the task,
• Attention to detail and checking their work
• Not give up , persistance to analyse and solve each problem.
• Building their self esteem – The joy of their first flight and convincing themsleves they can do a complex task with out assiatance.
• Celebrating the success of other students on the first flight.

We have another set of quadcopters and use them for competition such as popping balloons.

It is good fun and drones are an ideal student engagement tool.