Interschool Drone Challenge

By Jeanine Kobylinski, ICT Integrator

On Friday 20 September, Abbotsleigh hosted the inaugural Interschool Drone Challenge. Students from Barker College, Knox Grammar School and Ravenswood worked collaboratively with our girls in mixed school teams to solve real world problems focusing on the United Nations Sustainability Goal Number 9:

* build resilient infrastructure;
* promote inclusive and sustainable industrialisation; and
* foster innovation.
 
The students were given scenarios that promoted the development of a sustainable community. They had four key challenges in their community that had to be solved using drones. Testing possible design solutions based on computational thinking meant that constant iterations, failures and successes all featured in the students’ collaborative solutions.
 
The day formed the conclusion to an Abbotsleigh Year 5 unit of work on Geography and topographical scaling. The girls had investigated a variety of contemporary geographical land use or planning projects within Sydney. Some of these major projects included NorthConnex, Sydney Metro and Barangaroo. They investigated the use of drones in real-world scenarios and came up with a solution to an identified problem in our local area. Using Tello Drone Blocks, the girls were able to code their drones to complete specific challenges. 

One of our key focus areas during the project was the way in which the girls developed their interpersonal skills. Working effectively in teams is one of our key learning dispositions at Abbotsleigh; a skill which will last the girls a lifetime.