Division B Drone Project

I am Jacqueline DeWan. I’ve been teaching in Jersey City for fourteen years, primarily in a self-contained fifth grade class at P.S. No. 12.  This year, we piloted the Drone Project for the Mathematics Department.  The students quickly adapted to flying the drone and implementing the “flight and safety rules”  that we developed.  Students eagerly applied their technical skills to the academic process. We utilized the drones primarily in Math, as originally intended.  For example, we used the drones to develop understanding in converting metric units and to formatively assess multiplication and division of decimals. Students were engaged and eagerly participated, thereby providing immediate feedback for me to assess understanding. The level of participation among students who were more typically reticent opened the door to integrating drone use in other subject areas in order to promote student voice. As a self contained class, other possibilities quickly emerged in Language Arts.  Students developed alternative thesis statements and classmates flew the drone to the one they found most effective.  They would orally defend their choice.  Seeing firsthand how students eagerly anticipated Drone Days and based upon students’  positive written testimonials, I am encouraged to expand lesson planning for even more frequent use of drones in my classroom