Got to Start Somewhere ~ Cheerson Drone Materials ~ Drones

Flying drones.  Racing drones.  Videography with drones.  Being irresponsible with drones.  Building drones.  Drones have been around for a few years, but are increasing in popularity. It doesn't matter if it is recreational usage or finding innovative ways to make a buck flying a drone, the race is on to becoming the best of the best when it has to do with a drone.

There is really no easy way to start.  You might as well just dive in.  So that is what I did.

There are lots of things to consider when starting a drone program at your school.  As previously discussed, ask yourself what the main purpose of your drone will be when beginning your own program.

For Carol Morgan School, in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, I wanted students to learn how to fly and build their own drones to fly.  For engineering students, this was a great way to show them how to use various tools and teach about motors, soldering, gears, and electronics ~ more on this topic in the next blog.

In an earlier blog, I mentioned Cheerson CX-10 drones.  These are great to use (and inexpensive) to learn about flying.  There are also lots of YouTube videos online that will assist with flying instructions.  Once you get the hang of flying, you will learn how to do all the fun tricks.  I particularly like this video:

Learn to Fly a Quadcopter ~ TheBeatTheBush. “Learn to Fly a Quadcopter for Cheap | BeatTheBush.” YouTube, YouTube, Feb. 2015, www.youtube.com/watch?v=8bNEYBK2qhM&t=305s.

I purchased the following:

• 30 Cheerson CX-10 quadcopters
• 2 ~ Rechargeable 16 Bay Charger
• 4 ~ 12 pack AAA rechargeable batteries
• Needle Nose pliers

Before flying, we discussed the FAA flying rules and drone vocabulary.

FAA Rules ~ know before flying
Drone Vocabulary

Using these two documents of information we moved on to Getting Started with UAVs.  I used this HyperDoc to have students watch videos for understanding and this lead to great discussions about the FAA rules and are these rules really enforced in the Dominican Republic. Yes, my lovely students, the FAA rules are enforced here!


Because the flying time of these drones is approximately 6 minutes, I was able to have 2 flight times.  I would have enough drones for each child ~ (class size was less than 20 and I could always count on someone being absent).  I would give the students a checklist of skills that I would like them to learn. 

**Note ~ because the flying time is so short, the most you will spend on flying is about 30 minutes of a class session.  

Learning to Fly Drones ~ includes FAA and classroom rules for flying.

In closing, this is a really fun exciting activity.  However, always stress safety first and follow the FAA and classroom rules.