Day 1: Introduction to Drones and Work Readiness Competencies
The air was buzzing with excitement as a diverse group of students gathered for the first day of our five day long coding camp. The camp promised an exhilarating mix of technology and career preparation, and the atmosphere was charged with anticipation. The primary tool of exploration for the week? The Tello drone—a compact, programmable drone perfect for teaching the basics of coding and aerodynamics.
The day began with an orientation session. We introduced ourselves and learned about the camp's structure, emphasizing the dual focus on coding skills and work readiness competencies. The latter includes essential skills like initiative and self management, collaboration and teamwork, problem-solving and critical thinking, communication, response to supervision, quality of work—qualities crucial for success in any career.
Next we went to the giant lecture hall and learned about drones and how they're classified as UAVs and can be controlled from the ground or operated autonomously. After that we were introduced to the commercial uses of the drones and how the drones are used for medical deliveries, police work, etc. The instructors then told us about the drone we would be using for the next 5 days. The TELLO Drone is a compact, programmable drone designed for educational purposes, offering a user-friendly platform for learning coding and basic aerial maneuvers. We learned about the parts of the drone and the safety features involved.
Soon after, we got into the software part about the drone. We learned about algorithms which is an ordered set of instructions that are used to carry out a specific task. Then they explained what a flowchart was and how they are visual diagrams that represent the steps of a process or system, making it easier to understand, analyze, and communicate complex workflows. The instructors put us into groups and we were given the task of creating a flowchart of how to walk in a square. We soon learned that the flowcharts need to be specific and accurate because otherwise the program would not work the way you want it to.
Since we were coding the drone we would need an application to code it on, so they told us about the app called DroneBlocks which is specifically used to program drones of all sorts. We were tasked with doing our first flight mission of making the drone fly in a square. We learned about all the different blocks like the 'Fly forward' command and the 'Fly Right' command and many more. We completed many more challenges like creating another square but learning about the concept of Yaw. Yaw is the rotational movement of an object around its vertical axis, often used in the context of drones or aircraft to describe the left or right turning motion that changes the direction the nose of the vehicle is pointing. We were also introduced to Loops which is where a sequence of instructions are repeated a desired amount of times. After we learned about coordinates we had to do 3 challenges where we would make the drone fly in a hexagon and a vertical square.
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