Steam education with drones – an immersive experience

STEAM & Robotics have become an essential element of modern education, it is important for students to develop passion and foundation for these subjects at an early age.

STEAM is a curriculum based on idea of educating students in five major disciplines – Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts & Mathematics – in an associative and applied approach. Engaging students in this type of learning is easier and has shown more promising results as students are able to relate to the real-world applications and absorb much more information than they do when they are thought five subjects separately. Purpose of incorporating STEAM is not just to teach subjects to the students it is implemented with a motive “EDUCATE TO INNOVATE” and that’s how it separates this curriculum from a traditional system, it’s a blended learning environment demonstrating students how scientific method can be applied in everyday life. It has been observed STEAM education has resulted in students who can take thoughtful risks, persist in problem solving, welcome collaboration & have a creative thought process.

It is possible & essential to have a learning environment that is dynamic and relevant, to succeed in this new information based and highly technological society, students to develop their capabilities in STEAM to levels beyond what was considered acceptable in the past. Having activities that show real-life implements of what student studies in the classroom can pull through the knowledge gathered. Creating an interest is often challenging when learning new concept that doesn’t have a real-world application, children can see that what they are learning is now relevant to their future & future of the world.

Children love flying machines that’s pretty universal. Anywhere in the world if a flying machine is demonstrated to a group of kids, they go bonkers!! There’s just something cool about vehicle that can defy the laws of gravity and absolutely excite kids. As the technology has rapidly progressed in past few years few brilliant minds have given a new dimension to the science of flight from a manned aircraft to an unmanned aircraft known as “Drone”. Drones are remotely piloted aircraft’s they are used for multiple applications such as monitoring, surveillance, delivery, etc. they access to hard to reach places, small yet efficient systems, can travel longer distance in lesser time & are relatively inexpensive to use.

Drones are amazing, having drones in the classroom will certainly pique the curiosity levels of the students. Many kids struggle with mathematics and science because their abstract nature, observing flight path of the drone can help them to relate with time, distance, trigonometry & many more concepts.

“Learning to write programs stretches your mind, and helps you think better, creates a way of thinking about things that I think is helpful in all domains” ~ Bill Gates.

Drone technology is a great way to introduce students to programming, a tiny drone can be programmed to fly in different flight patterns, perform various maneuvers like flips and rolls and what not. One thought, a right logic in code & few concepts gathered in the classroom is all children require to get their aircraft’s airborne. 

Unmanned aerial vehicles have many positive uses that are making their way to modern day society, because of their versatile characteristics they have managed to squeeze in the modern education system to revolutionize learning.