Soaring High with Discover Drones by Lt. Col. Madison Morris

This Discover Drones review was provided by Lt. Col. Madison Morris, Senior Aerospace Science Instructor, AFJROTC at Metro Nashville Public Schools.

Thank You, Mr. Morris!
We at PCS Edventures want to express our sincere gratitude to Lt. Col. Madison Morris, Senior Aerospace Science Instructor at Metro Nashville Public Schools, for sharing his honest and insightful review of the Discover Drones Classroom Set. His experience as an AFJROTC instructor provides valuable perspective, and his feedback is crucial in helping us improve our products.

Point of View

We’ve been really impressed with the quality and design of every aspect of the Discover Drones package. I’ve been very pleased with the purchase. Following are a few observations from our roughly 6 months with the Classroom Set that I think would help further refine the curriculum and equipment.

BIG PICTURE - 5 drones isn't enough for a classroom of more than 10 or so students. Maybe the curriculum could include some suggestions on how to employ the package with larger class sizes. The package should include one controller for each drone. Flying is the fun stuff and only being able to fly at most 3 drones simultaneously really limits the number of students you can get engaged.

The drones need a "dummy mode". My drone team members all had previous drone flight experience and still struggled with controlling it. I think the issue is that, Altitude Hold and Position Hold have to be activated after take-off to make it truly "easy" to fly for beginners. But, activating those features requires flipping two different switches and actually takes a bit of skill not to flip the switches too far into other modes while maintaining a hover. It sounds ridiculously easy, but for newer pilots, it was actually difficult...and, even remembering to do that was an issue.

In my inexperience, I was incredibly frustrated with the drones for not holding altitude and position well, when most likely, the students hadn't flipped those switches properly to begin with. It was probably 6-8 days of frustrating flying before I figured this out. Ultimately, I figured I had to really micromanage the students' flying to ensure all the steps were being done properly. That is super time intensive...even with my small group of 5 students. If there was a dummy mode that eliminated that switch flipping and made the flight characteristics less nimble/fast (maybe even geo fence the drone to a scalable space around the launch point! e.g. ~225 SF) then I could get more students flying in less time. As is, it's a very time consuming task to train each pilot.

Repair costs are high. We destroyed 3 PDBs in a short time period. At $300 each, that's going to shut down most educational programs. Granted, as the teacher, it's all my fault. I should have had better judgment about when to allow them to fly untethered and not to allow any flights over asphalt. I was a dummy, and it cost us dearly. A "dummy mode" would certainly help "dummy teachers" develop their judgment and avoid drone program crushing bills.

A few minor tweaks I recommend to the curriculum and equipment are:

• PCS Edventures could mention early in the building instructions that there are two different shapes to the props based on which way they rotate. Holy cow did we waste time learning that lesson when we first tried flying them! Labeling the props for CW or CCW rotation would be super helpful.
• Also, maybe mention early in the flying stage of the curriculum the difference between 2 and 3 bladed props.
• Binding the drone to a different controller is a bit of a hassle. The binding button requires removing the battery holder to access it (4 screws) and is so small it’s hard to see and hold down to bind.

Summary, PCS Edventures has done an outstanding job with the Discover Drones classroom package. It really is a quality product. But I think it may be a bit too advanced for the average user. I've determined that if I am going to continue our program I need to have an entry level set of super durable drones that can be cheaply repaired and replaced. I look forward to seeing what they come up with in the future. I already know that whatever they put together will be a well designed and built product.

Soaring High with Your Feedback

At PCS Edventures, we believe that customer feedback is the fuel that propels us forward. We take all reviews seriously, and Lt. Col. Morris' insights will be used to refine the Discover Drones program, ensuring a more engaging and intuitive learning experience for everyone. We are constantly innovating and developing new products, and your voice helps us ensure they meet the needs of our customers.

Thank you again, Mr. Morris, for taking the time to share your thoughts. We look forward to seeing you and your students soar to new heights with Discover Drones!

Want to learn more about Drones?

• View other Point of Views
• Read blog posts at EDU Drones 101
• Get product details: Discover Drones

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