The best drones for schools offer a way to improve teaching and student engagement all in one go. This may mean teaching coding and construction on a possible trip to the heavens for your students.
Drones are more affordable and easier to use than ever. That said, these aerial devices also offer depth and complexity, especially when it comes to coding, which can help teach students of a wide range of ages and abilities.
Fundamentally, drones are valuable tools for STEM learning, both as a means to help students build their own flying machines and also as a way to work with those creations. Coding can engage students in the virtual world while their built machines show them how that can translate into an outcome in the physical world.
Once the drones are built, uses can continue with drone racing, video and image shooting, and other possible real-world projects, each of which also works with hand-eye coordination while piloting the drones.
Below are the best drones for schools with a variety listed, to meet many different teaching needs.
1. Robolink CoDrone Lite Educational – Top pick for best drones for schools
The Robolink CoDrone Lite Educational drone and Pro models are available standalone or as packs for schools. In any case, these allow students to learn how to physically build the drone and how to program it.
Programming is done through an Arduino coding environment or can be done using Python in the CoDrone Lite setup. The system helps students learn to code with block coding in Snap, text-based coding in Python, and coding in Blockly.
The drone itself is small and lightweight, and features auto hover, infrared sensors for educational gaming, and a barometer sensor to help with altitude control. The limited flight time of eight minutes isn’t ideal, nor is the maximum range of 160 feet, but since it’s more about building and tinkering than flying, these limits aren’t an issue.
2. Ryze DJI Tello EDU: the best camera drone for coding
The Ryze DJI Tello EDU is the result of a collaboration between Ryze Robotics and the king of drone manufacturers, DJI. The result is a drone with impressive specs for the price, complete with 720p, 30fps built-in camera, object recognition, automatic take-off and landing, and a fail-safe protection system.
Here you get many coding options with Scratch, Python and Swift available. This model can also work with other drones of the same type in a swarm mode so they can all “dance” together. Mission platforms offer uses such as takeoff and landing areas. This unit also offers a flight time of 13 minutes, better than most. Plus, you can add a special development kit (SDK) for lots of creative tinkering, ideal for bright, curious and enthusiastic minds.
3. Sky Viper e1700: Best affordable educational drone
The Sky Viper e1700 is an aerobatic drone that can be built from its basic parts and programmed to perform tricks. The fact that it also flies at up to 25 mph is another feature that helps make it a lot of fun while also being educational.
This unit is great for hand-eye coordination, as it not only has the usual automatic flight mode, but is also pure manual, requiring a good amount of skill, concentration, and patience to master. Despite the low price, it comes with many parts, including spares, which are great if the unit is going to have a lot of beginner pilots trying to control it manually.
4. Parrot Mambo Fly: Best educational drone for coding options
The Parrot Mambo Fly is a very attractive drone option as it is made by a well-known drone manufacturer and is modular. This means that students can build different drones depending on what they are connected to, from a high-quality 60fps camera to a cannon or capture system. While that flexibility creates many options for real-world uses, the programming aspect is also impressive.
This unit offers some of the most varied programming language options of any drone with block-based Tynker and Blockly, but also text-based JavaScript, Python, and even support for Apple Swift Playground.
5. Makeblock Airblock: the best modular educational drone
The Makeblock Airblock is a modular drone consisting of a central master unit and six other modules that can be easily connected magnetically. It is designed and built by a STEM learning specialist and, as such, features comprehensive learning options. Airblock comes with a dedicated mBlock 5 programming platform that features block-based and text-based coding.
The included Neuron app is a flow-based programming software that allows students to integrate the actions of this drone with other devices such as ai or smart Internet of Things devices. All of this makes for a very creative and complete learning experience from a drone at a good price.
6. BetaFpv FPV Cetus RTF Kit: Best for Racing
The BetaFpv FPV Cetus RTF Kit is a great choice for students who enjoy gaming. This includes a virtual reality headset that allows you to fly the drone in a first-person view, as if you were on board during a flight. A super immersive experience, very fun and that teaches hand-eye coordination in a unique way.
The battery could be longer with a limited flight time of 5 minutes, except for the price that gives you the kit for FPV hobbyists without the usual outlay. You can even play a flight simulator game, using the controller, while the drone charges. The addition of a floating optical flow sensor is unusual for these types of models, which is nice to see and makes it easy and safe to use.
