When it comes to teaching STEM, nothing beats the wow factor that drones provide, says Henzé Gustave.
Gustave is the former Metaverse Director and Drone Education Expert at Drone Cadets. He is also the founder of Skyhound Group LLC, a newly launched drone pilot training organization that will work with students around the world. He has worked with students and educators across the United States and internationally to help teach everything from coding, math, engineering and physics to cybersecurity and teamwork.
Drones are increasingly used in agriculture, mining, search and rescue operations, and for tasks as diverse as helping power companies conduct inspections on power lines. By learning about drones, students can become drone pilots and get real-world job training for these industries, plus the lessons learned while working with drones can be applied to many other areas beyond aviation, says Gustave.
Interest in all things drone-related has recently surged thanks to a series of mysterious sightings that have captivated the nation. These incidents began in New Jersey, but strange drone sightings were soon reported in other states. Theories about the origins of these unidentified devices range from government shenanigans to mass hysteria to the aliens, of course.
Secret government or extraterrestrial drones aside, everyday drones have a lot to offer in terms of learning. These are some of the things drones can teach students.
1. Teaching with drones: practical construction
Drone education is more hands-on than some standard computer science classes. In Gustave's programs, students use kits to assemble their own drones. Even students who have some dexterity issues tend to enjoy this process, he says.
“We have seen an overwhelmingly great response because it allows students to fully understand the functionalities of each component and understand how they work together,” he says.
2. Coding
Using drones to reinforce coding lessons is a great way for students to see the power of programming and how it influences the real world.
“We are in this digital world and coding is one of those skills that everyone should have,” says Gustave.
Drones help students learn block coding and other coding languages while completing various drone missions. “We gave these students the task of getting from point A to point C while avoiding point B,” he says.
3. Engineering
Students who complete drone missions learn about coding, but also physics and mathematics, Gustave says, since both basic engineering principles are necessary to calculate what will make the drone perform at its best. For example, perhaps they can remove some components from a drone to make it lighter and therefore potentially move faster.
“We even teach them the different voltages of the drones so they understand what voltages are needed for the components they are assembling,” Henze says.
4. Cybersecurity
“Drones are flying computers,” Henze says, making the devices an excellent vehicle for teaching about cybersecurity.
“We teach students how to find those small vulnerabilities, how to fix them, and we learn the basics of cybersecurity,” Henze says. “And they can take that skill set outside of the drone world and apply it to the broader cybersecurity space.”
5. Teamwork
Part of all of these lessons is the equally important skill of students learning to collaborate and work as a team.
“They're working together to solve a problem,” he says. This can be enhanced by the friendly and competitive nature of things like drone racing.
“There's that excitement, you know, the team camaraderie and also the bragging rights of being able to win a race,” he says.
6. Communicate experience
An additional skill that students familiar with drones have lately has is that they can help explain what exactly has been happening in the night skies of New Jersey and elsewhere, explaining what conventional civilian drones can and cannot do.
Gustave says these drone sightings have sparked interest among the drone students he works with. “Now they are much more interested because they have a sense of experience,” he says. “They can adequately explain a little of what is happening to their parents or friends.”
