Drone Blocks

Drones Drones and More Drones!

Introduction-

During this asynchronous week for class, we worked on an extremely fascinating website known as Droneblocks, where we flew a virtual drone using code that we created. I picked the Mars layout because of how different it looked and sure enough, it did prove to be a fun experience all around! (Of course that was after exploring the other required tabs) More explained down below-

General tello instructions -

-Make sure you review your code blocks and understand the intended behavior of your mission
-Power on Tello and place on a flat surface in an open area indoors.
-Double tap your home button and go to Settings > Wifi
-Tap on the Tello, which will create a hotspot that will look similar to Tello-XXXXXX.
-Double-tap your home button and return to DroneBlocks
-Click "Connect To Tello"
-Now that you're ready to execute your mission click the "hamburger" icon. (It is the blue icon with three lines.)
-Click "Launch Mission".
-Watch the magic happen!

Reflect upon the simulator experiences: which specific simulation tutorials were the most interesting to you? How did you try to alter the lines of code for what effects? What can you imagine for an engaging 5-10 minute simulator experience that encourages experimentation with lines of code? 

    Honestly, this coding experience was quite difficult to get a hang of as well, I never really understood our first coding experience so this one was just as difficult to understand but once again over time, it began to make more sense. However, despite its difficulties; it was certainly more interesting to see the drone reacting to the codes and its given directions. I was able to have the drone follow through with the square maneuver and even had my little guy do flips while roaming the area. when I wanted to fly higher, I had to change the numbers to make it do such and I even added in loops to make my little guy repeat certain actions if I wanted him to! This would be fun to teach to children because it helps them realize that coding and computers could be as simple as figuring out how to make a box.

     I think just playing in my little Mars world was my absolute favorite thing, especially just trying to figure out how to make my little guy do tasks through codes. I added flips and made him just 'bounce' up and down to give him some personality if I must say so, just having some general fun with my little virtual drone whilst learning how to input proper code. I think an engaging experience for students to do for this assignment is having them go from one place to another but they have to create a different path compared to their friends. You can even include family and friends in the activity to see how their minds work with coding.

Screencast of my drone playing on Mars! 

Keynotes

-can save and restart missions

-Creating boxes can have the drone just continue to look straight or turn

-Loops add a way to have something repeat itself

-If/else variables add logic and intelligence to the codes

- Each world has its own tasks and obstacles

Tello-dance

-inspiration is the start of it all! helps the user come up with a new idea

-User must synchronize their drone to the music and others to create the dance- the starting testing phase

-Program the drones to the music- more testing and includes figuring out what is expected for the drone to do

-Choreography- figuring and playing with the drone dance moves

-Most importantly- collaboration! work together with peers to have the drones dance together!

Programming with Python

-set up your environment before anything, this helps determine what your purpose is

- the computer with the script sends UPD to the drone and the drone tells the computer it's been received

- can use previously made scripts or create your own functions

-Tello can fly in complex shapes such as stars if coded properly and unit conversions are done

-errors can happen so retry logic needs to be included to automatically retry the command

STANDARDS- 5.2.a Nurture a confident, competent, and positive identity around computing for every student.
5.2.e- Communicate with students, parents, and leaders about the impacts of computing in our world and across diverse roles and professional life, and why these skills are essential for all students