Drones in High-Tech Farming (Grades 3-5)

Materials Needed

Interest Approach — Engagement:

• Gymnasium or large field free of trees or overhead wires 
• Quadcopter drone (We tested the Ryze Tello drone. If using a different drone, feel free to adapt the instructions to meet your drone's specifications.)
• Piece of cardboard, wood, foam, or rubber mat for drone takeoff and landing (optional)

Activity 1: How Does a Drone Fly?

• Hair dryer
• Ping pong ball
• Whirlybird Rotor Template, 2 per student
• Paper clip, 1 per student
• Scissors
• Rulers
• Quadcopter drone
• How Do Drones Fly? video

Activity 2: Drones in Agriculture

• Monitoring Crop Health with Drones video
• Crop Troubleshooting Cards
• Scissors
• Glue sticks

Activity 3: Drone Mission

• Gymnasium or large field free of trees or overhead wires
• Drone Mission Activity Packet, 1 per student
• Brown or black poster paper, 4 pieces
• Crop Problem Signs
• Quadcopter drone 
• Piece of cardboard, wood, foam, or rubber mat for drone takeoff and landing (optional)
• Smartphone or tablet
• DroneBlocks App
• Crop Troubleshooting Guides from Activity 2

Vocabulary Words

Background

Interest Approach - Engagement

1. Take the class to a large field free of trees or overhead wires or into a gymnasium.
2. Show the students the quadcopter drone. Explain that drones either have fixed wings or rotors. Drones with four rotors are called quadcopters. 
3. Perform a demonstration of the drone's capabilities including take off, hover, maneuvers in the air, filming video, taking photographs, and landing. (If flying the drone outside, a cardboard, wood, foam, or rubber landing pad is recommended. Long grass can interfere with the drone's rotors.)
4. Arrange the students into small groups. Ask the groups to make a list of different ways in which a drone might be useful to people.
5. Have each group share their ideas with the class.
6. Explain to the students that, in this lesson, they will discover how a drone flies, explore how drones are used in agriculture, and program and operate a drone to survey a field.

Procedures

Activity 1: How Does a Drone Fly?

1. Ask the students, "How do drones fly?" After listening to their responses, lead a discussion about gravity and lift. Integrate the following points into the discussion: 
   • Gravity is the natural force that causes things to fall toward the Earth.
   • Lift is the force that directly opposes the weight of the aircraft and holds the aircraft in the air.
   • Quadcopter drones use rotors to help the drone lift off the ground and fly.
   • As the rotor pushes down on the air, air pushes up on the rotor.
   • In order for the drone to fly into the air, a force that equals or exceeds the force of gravity must be created. This is called lift.
   • The faster the rotors spin, the greater the lift.
2. Turn on a hair dryer and aim it towards the ceiling. Place a ping pong ball into the stream of air. Ask the students, "Why is the ping pong ball floating?" (The force of the air pushing up on the ball is equal to the force of gravity pushing down on the ball, so the ball is hovering in the air.)
3. Ask the students what they think will happen to the ping pong ball if the hair dryer is turned off. Turn the hair dryer off to show the students that the ball will fall to the ground. Ask the students, "Why does the ping pong ball fall when the hair dryer is turned off?" (The force of the air pushing up on the ball is less than the force of gravity pushing down on the ball.)
4. Hand out two copies of the whirlybird rotor template and a paper clip to each student. Instruct the students to cut out both of the whirlybird rectangles. Have them crumple one of the rectangles into a ball and follow the template's instructions to make a rotor with the other piece of paper.
   
5. Have the students carefully stand on their chairs and drop their crumpled ball and their rotor (paper clip facing down) at the same time from the same height.
6. Ask the students, "Which stayed in the air the longest, the crumpled ball or the rotor?" (the rotor) "Why did the rotor stay in the air longer?" (The design of the rotor causes the blades to spin as it falls through the air. The spinning blades generate enough lift to slow the rotor down.)
7. Show the students the rotors on the quadcopter drone. Clarify that, unlike the paper rotor, the drone's rotors are powered by motors that can create and maintain a force that is equal to or greater than the force of gravity. The rotors help the drone lift off the ground and fly.
8. Show the students the video How Do Drones Fly? for an explanation of how rotors help drones move in different directions.
   Video: How Do Drones Fly?

   

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Bc2nuOuRjM
9. Provide a demonstration about how to fly the class drone using a smartphone or tablet as a remote control. Include an explanation of the safety guidelines listed in the Background Agricultural Connections section of this lesson.

Activity 2: Drones in Agriculture

1. Watch the Monitoring Crop Health with Drones video as a class. Before watching the video tell students that there are three roles you want them to look out for. One is the role of the drone, the second is the role of the software, and the third is the role of the humans. After watching the video discuss these questions as a class.
   • What does the drone physically do? It flies over the fields taking pictures.
   • What does the software do? It stitches together all the photos and makes a color-coded map of the fields. Areas that show less photosynthesis are possible problem spots.
   • What do the people do? They program the drone, evaluate the map made by the software, go out and check the problem areas and take samples to figure out what the problem(s) are, and then address the problems.
   • What kinds of problems might you spot in a field using a drone? Drainage problems, damage from pests or disease, and soil problems that are making the crops grow poorly.
   • Do you think the drones are helpful to farmers? Why or why not? Drones save farmers time as they don't have to walk all of the fields looking for problems. They can also spot problems sooner than a human might see them. They allow farmers to focus more time on fixing the problems rather than finding them and can result in better crop yields.
   Video: Monitoring Crop Health With Drones

   

   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wUBxcXSM6wc
2. After the video discussion, lead a class discussion about general crop problems. Integrate the following points into the discussion:
   • When insect pests eat crops, the plants do not thrive. Pesticides are substances used to destroy harmful insects. 
   • When weeds invade crops, they compete with the plants for water, nutrients, and sunlight. Herbicides are substances used to destroy weeds.
   • When plants do not receive enough water, they wilt and eventually die. Irrigation is the application of controlled amounts of water to plants.
   • When plants do not receive the proper nutrients, they grow slowly and turn yellow. Fertilizers are substances that supply nutrients to plants.
   • Pesticides, herbicides, and fertilizers can be part of either organic or conventional farming practices, depending on the specific types that are being used.
3. Have the students capture the discussion information by creating a "Crop Troubleshooting Guide" which will be used in Activity 3. Provide each student with a blank 8 1/2" x 11" piece of paper. Fold the paper so that the top edge meets the left edge and forms a point at the top left corner. Cut off the excess paper strip at the bottom. Open the paper to make a square and then refold it the opposite way. Open the fold to reveal an X fold pattern. Fold each corner to the center point of the X to form a small square. Turn the square over and write the title "Crop Troubleshooting Guide" and your name. Turn the guide back over to the side with the four tabs.
4. Provide each student with a copy of the Crop Troubleshooting Cards. Instruct the students to cut out the cards. Have the students use their glue sticks to attach the title card "Crop Troubleshooting Guide" to the back of the square (the side without tabs). Ask the students to match each of the four problem cards (bold font) with the corresponding solution card and the solution description card. Glue the problem cards on the outside of each tab, the solution cards on the inside of the tabs, and the solution description cards underneath the tabs so that the following information is captured:
   
   • Outside tab 1: Insects are eating the crops.
     Inside tab 1: Apply pesticides.
     Underneath tab 1: Pesticides are substances used to destroy harmful insects.
   • Outside tab 2: Weeds are invading the crops.
     Inside tab 2: Apply herbicides.
     Underneath tab 2: Herbicides are substances used to destroy weeds.
   • Outside tab 3: The crops are wilting.
     Inside tab 3: Adjust irrigation.
     Underneath tab 3: Irrigation is the application of controlled amounts of water to plants.
   • Outside tab 4: The crops are growing slowly and turning yellow.
     Inside tab 4: Apply fertilizer.
     Underneath tab 4: Fertilizers are substances that supply nutrients to plants.

Activity 3: Drone Mission

1. Prior to beginning Activity 3, identify a large, rectangular field or gymnasium to represent a farm field. Place four pieces of poster paper onto different spots on the field or gymnasium floor. Attach a Crop Problem Sign onto each poster.
2. Hand out a Drone Mission Activity Packet to each student. The students will also need their "Crop Troubleshooting Guides" from Activity 2. 
3. Summarize the farming challenge from chapter 1 of Agricultural Drones by telling the students, "Imagine that you are a farmer, and you are having a problem with your crops. Some of the plants are not growing well. Your fields are very large. You do not have time to walk through the entire area to check your plants. You're not sure what is causing the problem. You need more information before deciding what to do. Luckily, you have a drone. You will need to program a flight plan for the drone and take aerial photographs and videos of the problem areas. Examine the images captured by the drone's camera to identify what is causing the problems, and determine how to manage your crops."
4. Model for the students how to video the field by flying the drone around the rectangular perimeter of the "farm field" using the following manual commands:
   • Turn on the Drone video.
   • Begin takeoff in the bottom left corner of the rectangular field.
   • Yaw right 90°.
   • Fly left to the top left corner of the field.
   • Yaw right 90°.
   • Fly left to the top right corner of the field.
   • Yaw right 90°.
   • Fly left to the bottom right corner of the field.
   • Yaw right 90°.
   • Fly left to the bottom left corner of the field.
   • Land in the bottom left corner of the field.
   • Turn off the drone video.
5. Organize the class into groups of four students. Have the groups use the video footage to map out the "farm field's" problem areas on their Drone Mission Activity Packet and assign a number 1-4 to each problem area on their map.
6. Explain to the students that the mission you modeled for them was flown manually using a remote control (smartphone or tablet). Sometimes farmers manually fly drones over their fields. Other times farmers program flight plans so that the drone can repeat flight paths without having to be flown manually.
7. Explain to the class that they are going to work in their groups to create a flight path around the perimeter of the field. Have the groups choose from the flight commands in the Drone Mission Activity Packet to create their flight path. The flight path should meet the following requirements:
   • The drone may begin at any location along the perimeter of the field.
   • The drone must take off and land at the same location.
   • The drone's camera must face the farm field throughout the flight. (Students will not have the ability to capture video or photographs during the programmed flight.)
   • The drone must fly around the entire perimeter of the field one time.
8. Check each group's flight plan for any commands which could result in an unsafe situation or damage to the drone. Have the groups make any necessary adjustments.
9. Have each group enter their flight plan into the DroneBlocks App by dragging, dropping, and connecting the command blocks.
10. Allow time for each group to test their flight plan by launching their mission around the "farm field." The groups should check the boxes in step 2 of their Drone Mission Activity Packet for each requirement that was successfully met during the test. Adjustments should be made and tested until each box can be checked off.
    • Tech Tip: On occasion, the Tello drone will fail to respond to a particular programmed command from DroneBlocks. Adding a 2 second hover before the failed command may solve the problem. The DroneBlocks Community on Facebook can be a helpful troubleshooting resource.
11. Have each group take turns manually flying the drone over the field and take an aerial photo of each problem area. Each student in the group will fly the drone over and photograph one of the four problem areas. The first person will fly over and photograph problem area 1, the second person will fly over and photograph area 2, and so on.
12. Examine the photographs to identify the crop problems. Consult the "Crop Troubleshooting Guide" from Activity 2 to find solutions for the crop problems, and record the problems and solutions on the Drone Mission Activity Packet.
13. As a class discuss the benefits of using a drone to have a birds-eye-view of a farm. Integrate the following points into the discussion:
    • Farmers can monitor large fields that would be difficult to monitor on foot.
    • The birds-eye-view of a drone can improve production, efficiency, and yields by identifying small problems before they become big problems.
    • Solutions can be applied with precision and accuracy saving time, money, and resources.
     

Concept Elaboration and Evaluation

After conducting these activities, review and summarize the following key concepts:

• A drone is an unmanned aircraft guided by remote control or onboard computers.
• In order for a drone to fly into the air, a force that equals or exceeds the force of gravity must be created. This is called lift.
• Drone applications in precision agriculture include mapping, surveying, monitoring, planting, crop dusting, and spraying.
• Agricultural drones can increase yields, save time and money, and assist with animal and crop monitoring, planning, and management.

Author

Original author: Lynn Wallin

Organization Affiliation

National Center for Agricultural Literacy