Before You Begin

In this unit, students will apply everything they have learned throughout this course about flying the VEX AIR Drone with the VEX AIR Drone Controller to complete an open-ended capstone challenge. They will try to earn the highest possible score as they fly the drone to pick up and deliver cargo and orbit balls. They will follow a four-phase process to plan, practice, and iterate on their strategies for piloting the drone throughout the challenge.

Learning Objectives:

• Demonstrate their ability to move objects with the VEX AIR Drone and modules.
• Demonstrate how to make and document a flight strategy to score points in the challenge.
• Evaluate flight attempts during practice and make adjustments based on observed outcomes.
• Demonstrate persistence by refining strategies across multiple attempts.
• Reflect on their progress and learning over the entire course.

Environment Setup and Materials:

Ensure that your indoor flight area is marked and labeled, and that students know the safety procedures for your space. Use the following articles to help you as you set up your space and ready your students for flight.

• Setting Up Your Classroom for Safe Flight with VEX AIR — This article gives recommendations for creating a safe flight area in your space, and environmental considerations to support safe flight sessions.
• Classroom Management for Teaching with the VEX AIR Drone — This article provides roles and responsibilities for before, during, and after flight.

Students will need access to the contents of their VEX AIR Kit for this unit, including charged batteries. For more information about charging batteries, see this article.

For this challenge, additional materials needed to set up your flight space will depend on whether you have the VEX AIR Competition Field or a VEX AIR Classroom Bundle.

• Competition Field - You can use the complete field setup to complete the Drone Flight Challenge. For information about how to customize your competition field for this challenge, see the Taking the Mission Further lesson. 
• Classroom Bundle - You can use classroom materials for the goals in your flight area. There should be one large goal (approximately 12 x 24 inches or larger) and one small goal that is approximately half the size. Each goal should have tall sides so objects stay inside, and should be weighted down so it does not move during flight.
  • Goals can be made from cardboard boxes, an empty classroom trash can, plastic bins, or another classroom container. 
  • Be sure that orbit balls and cargo are on field plates secured to the floor of the flight area.
  • For information about how to customize your challenge flight area, see the Taking the Mission Further lesson. 

Standards Alignment:

The following standards can be reached in this unit. To learn how these standards are met, and view a comprehensive standards alignment, go to standards.vex.com.

Common Core English Language Arts (CCSS ELA)

• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.SL.1 - Prepare for and participate effectively in a range of conversations and collaborations with diverse partners, building on others' ideas and expressing their own clearly and persuasively.
• CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RST.9-10/11-12.3 - Follow precisely a complex multistep procedure when carrying out experiments, taking measurements, or performing technical tasks, attending to special cases or exceptions defined in the text.

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE)

• Empowered Learner – 1.1.c – Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.
• Knowledge Constructor – 1.3.d – Students build knowledge by exploring real-world issues and gain experience in applying their learning in authentic settings.
• Innovative Designer – 1.4.a - Students know and use a deliberate design process for generating ideas, testing theories, creating innovative artifacts or solving authentic problems.
• Innovative Designer – 1.4.d - Students exhibit a tolerance for ambiguity, perseverance and the capacity to work with open-ended problems.
• Global Collaborator – 1.7.c - Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal. 

The Drone Flight Challenge is an opportunity for students to show what they have learned throughout the course. This includes not just their piloting skills, but the growth they have made in persistence, problem-solving ability, and flexibility. Consider introducing the mission by inviting students to reflect on their progress in these areas, to remind them that success comes in many forms. 

Remind students that just as in all of their previous missions, they will have times when things don't go according to plan, and that is why only their two highest-scoring runs will be used for their final scores.

Having students share an example of an experience they had earlier in the course where they persisted through a challenge and saw improvement in their ability to fly the drone can set the tone for a patient and positive challenge.