Drone curriculum for middle and high schools

Drone curriculum for middle and high schools

Updated 6/4/24

We have exciting curriculum options at Pitsco Education, especially around an emerging technology: drones.

We’ve all heard about drones and how they’re becoming more and more prevalent in our lives.

  • HVAC companies are using drones to inspect hard-to-reach places.
  • Farmers are using drones to survey crops to determine which crops are healthy and which ones are not.
  • And, yes, drones are even being used to wash windows!

While all of this sounds rather Jetsons-esque, the fact of the matter is that drones are being used for many careers and occupations now. Our goal has always been to provide learning experiences so students can gain valuable skills they can use in the future workforce.

It doesn’t get much more “future” than with drone technology.

Assist your students in learning some of these valuable skills using our middle and high school curriculum options!

Students controlling Echo Drone.

Middle School Drone Options

Introduce your middle school students to some of the various ways drones can be used in the real world using the Drone Flight Guide Curriculum and Field Elements Kitenabling students to get hands on with drones.

This curriculum has many great advantages to help get you and your students excited about drones in an easy-to-use, nonintimidating way:

  • Both manual flight and coding activities
  • Up to 120 hours worth of curriculum tied to ITEEA standards
  • Progressive activities and open-ended challenges and competitions
  • Real-world connections to many drone-related careers
  • Flexibility for any drones to be used (although we do offer the Echo Drones)

These are just some of the features of our middle school curriculum. It also includes a teacher guide and multiple student guides to help with the instruction of the course.

Drone obstacles and Flight Guides from Drone Flight Guide Curriculum and Field Elements Kit

One great thing about this curriculum is that the content ties in competition elements that so many students enjoy. Students learn so much doing something hands on and especially when competing against each other. This accomplishes both of those things!

Download our middle school curriculum!

High School Drone Options

We had the pleasure to partner with CrossFlight Sky Solutions over the past year to provide an extensive curriculum offering for High School. This curriculum goes beyond the introduction to drones and really focuses on how your students can become FAA-certified drone pilots. While it doesn’t grant access to the FAA Part 107 exam, it does prepare students to take that exam.

Drone Field Kit

Look at it this way, it’s very much like a driver’s education course but for drones. It essentially paves the way to pass the exam to get your license to commercially fly a drone.

This curriculum has many cool features: 

  • Choice between 40-hour self-study or 150-hour full curriculum options
  • Robust in nature and covers all FAA Part 107 standards
  • Introduces and connects multiple aviation-based careers
  • Daily lesson plans and rubrics through an extensive learning management system

Enjoy this fully immersive high school curriculum that was designed by certified professionals and former educators. For those students who are interested in aviation and flying as their future career, this could guide them on the correct path to make that dream a reality.

Student flying a drone with instructor watching.

Get more information on CrossFlight’s high school drone curriculum.

The Skies the Limit Using Drones

Drones are really an emerging technology in the true definition of the word. So many careers are using drones, and I firmly believe many more will follow suit. If we learned anything from recent years, it’s that problem-solving is paramount, and drones can help in solving many problems that maybe haven’t even been discovered yet.

Our drone curriculum offerings pave the way so students can take advantage of the skills they’ll need for the future.

As always, we’re here to help! Feel free to drop us a line in the comments. Tell us how you’re currently teaching drones or if you have a need to teach drones in the future. We’d love to hear about some of the cool ways you’ve seen drones being used.

But most importantly, please stay safe and make the best out of 2021!

RESOURCES:

Pitsco Graphic, text: "Flying into 2021: Drone Curriculum Offerings".
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