All four phases are included in the Mission Log (Google doc / .docx / .pdf). Distribute the Mission Log to students at the start of the challenge. 

• If using printed Mission Logs, you may want to have extra copies readily available for students to use throughout the mission, as they are documenting their plans and practice.

Be sure that all students have ample time for planning, practicing, and refining their flight plans for the mission. Help students to remain engaged in the challenge by celebrating small successes along the way.

You can adapt the challenge as needed to best suit the needs of your students. For example, if you find that a four minute time constraint is too challenging for your students, raise it to five or six minutes. You may also want to provide students with the opportunity to “officially” fly the Capstone Mission several times, and take their best score. The Capstone is meant to give students an experience where they can show what they have learned and be proud of it, without undue frustration.

Throughout the Capstone Mission, you will guide students to follow a process similar to that in the previous open-ended challenge mission (Unit 7). Your role is to facilitate students' development, testing, and execution of a viable flight plan for the mission. The goal of this phase is for students to stop and consider options before they attempt to fly the mission. 

Introduce this phase by demonstrating how to identify and evaluate one or two possible options together as a whole class. With everyone looking at the field together, talk through one possible flight plan that uses both modules. Model thinking through the time it could take to do each task and the amount of points the task would score. Help students to think strategically about the relationship between precision needed, speed, and number of points as they develop their plans. 

Ask questions like:

• What are some different ways you could start your run, and what are the pros and cons of each?
• Where might you lose time during your flight, and how can your plan prevent that?
• What is your “backup plan” if something doesn’t go as expected (missed pickup, dropped cargo, bad alignment)?
• What does an efficient flight path look like on this field (smooth turns, fewer stops, fewer extra movements)?

This can help students to develop a solid starting plan they can practice and refine in the next phases.

Students should check in with you to share their flight plan before moving on to practicing.

This phase should feel like the other missions in this course. The goal here is that students take time to practice flying their intended flight plan so they can collect data and evaluate its success.

Remind students to take turns after each practice flight. This gives each student the opportunity to reflect on their flight and document it in the Mission Log while another student practices, so all students remain engaged throughout the challenge.

As students are flying, talk with them about their progress. Ask questions like:

• How effective is your plan? How do you know?
• Now that you have tried your plan, what are some ways you might improve it? 
• At what point in your flight do you plan to switch modules? Why?
• How are you allocating time to each task? To each module? 

Students should check in with you to share their practice and documentation before moving on to the next phase.

Encourage students to think critically about their practice and to use their reflection notes to help them improve their flight plans. Students do not need to make big changes, but all students should document some type of refinement based on their practice.

The goal of this phase of the process is to help students use what they learned in practice to make data-based decisions to refine their plans. Talk with students during this phase, asking questions like:

• What was the biggest challenge you faced during your practice runs? How are you adjusting your flight plan to account for it?
• Which task in your plan is the highest risk (most likely to cause mistakes or slow you down)? How will you handle it?
• What is one measurable goal for your next practice flight? How is that documented in your refined plan?

Students should share their refined flight plan before moving on. They will likely need multiple practice rounds with their revised plan. Encourage them to cycle between Phases 2 and 3 as many times as needed before attempting the final Capstone Mission.

The goal is for students to apply their planning and preparation to their actual flights. Encourage students to reflect between attempts so they can document not only whether each flight was successful, but why, and how it connects to their flight plan.

Talk with students about how their flight planning and practice helped them be successful in the mission. Ask questions like:

• What is something you learned earlier in the course that helped you score more points in the Capstone Mission? How did you use it during your flight?
• How did your flight plan change from your first draft to your current plan? What made you decide to change it?
• What strategy helped you balance “big point” tasks with tasks you could complete quickly and/or consistently? Why did you choose that balance?
• How did planning ahead (instead of just flying) help you improve your piloting skills during the mission?

Regardless of how well students score in the Capstone Mission, encourage them to reflect on how their piloting skills have grown throughout the course. While there will always be room for improvement, this is a moment to celebrate success.