iPads for Coding Drones

Funded Jun 4, 2018

As I type this thank you letter, one of my students is so enamored with the coding app he's installed on our new iPad, that he continues to tell me all of the amazing things he can program this drone to do. He is mentioning actions I've never heard of before as if I'm the expert. It can glide, it can navigate to coordinates, and can follow actors. There are green commands, blue commands, and orange commands. He is exploring and learning faster than I can keep up. My goal has always been to put the technology in the students' hands and let them figure it out. By funding these iPads, you have made it possible for my students to learn beyond what I am capable of teaching them.

Possibly the most exciting aspect of using these new iPads to code our drones was the look on the students' faces the first time they hit "take-off" on the app and the drone immediately lifted off into the air. The smile on their faces said everything. What amazed me was how quickly they took to steering and controlling the drone, as if this technology is second nature to them. I've already challenged them to program the drone to fly our hallways as if on patrol. They seem very eager to get started by exploring the coding app's possibilities.

One student, in particular, the one in most of the photos, has really expressed the most excitement in working on this coding project. He is the one who has discovered the many different slices of code that can control the drone in different ways. Rather than simply navigate our hallways by turning left and right, or moving forward, he is already exploring the idea of making the drone to barrel-rolls down the hallway or make very fast sweeping turns. The drone even has a little airsoft cannon attached. He wants to see if he can make it shoot at objects along the path. I have no idea if this is possible, but I am excited that he is thinking outside of the box at all the possibilities and not just attempting to meet the minimum requirements of the challenge.

We can't thank you enough for funding these iPads and making these new coding opportunities possible for our classroom.”

With gratitude,

Mr. Touchette