In honor of Career and Technical Education (CTE) Month, we’re highlighting the Robolink Learn Python activity, Site Monitoring. This lesson puts students in the role of a career-ready drone pilot supporting a construction project. Students program their drone to mimic capturing a 30-second site-monitoring video at multiple height levels, mirroring how drones are used in construction, engineering, and infrastructure careers.

Through this challenge, students practice time-based programming, loops, altitude control, and safe flight procedures while gaining insight into how drones support real CTE pathways like construction management, architecture, engineering, and aviation. While the featured lesson is in Python, this activity can also be accomplished using Blockly for Robolink.

This lesson is a clear example of how classroom coding skills translate directly into workforce-ready applications. Learn more about how Robolink Learn supports learning in this blog post. To dive into our new curriculum, visit learn.robolink.com.

What You’ll Need

• CoDrone EDU and controller

• CoDrone EDU–compliant computer

• A “building” with levels for the drone to inspect

•  We recommend either stacking boxes on top of each other, or putting tape on a wall, to indicate each level of the building. For those low on time or supplies, you can provide specific heights that the levels are located at for the drone to accommodate.

Classroom Set Up

As always, you’ll want to make sure that there’s a clear, dedicated space to flying. For this challenge, you can accomplish this with at least 40 sq. ft. We also recommend providing a physical building (or two) with obvious layers (i.e. boxes stacked on top of another) to make the task more obvious to students. 

Want to drum up interest? Watch this YouTube Short that is a real-world example of site monitoring with a drone.

Challenge 1: Logging a Professional Flight

Before takeoff, students program their drone to print the current time. In construction and engineering careers, accurate logs are essential for inspections, compliance, and communication with clients.

Students should also ensure that they’ve completed the Pre-Flight Checklist.

Challenge 2: Multi-Level Site Monitoring

For this portion of the challenge, students will need to program the drone to capture orbit-style footage around the construction site at each level. Students decide where the site is relative to the takeoff zone and program the drone to fly a curved path while keeping the camera pointed toward the center. Once the drone has “captured” all of the footage, the drone should return home.

Note: CoDrone EDU does not have a camera, so for this activity, students will program the drone to act as if it does.

The client requires footage from at least two height levels, just like a real inspection:

• Lower altitude for structural details

• Higher altitude for an overall site view

Students can choose how to divide the total 30 seconds of footage, reinforcing decision-making and planning.

Challenge 3: Time-Based Control and Safe Completion

In this challenge, students will adjust their program to control recording length, land safely, and then complete their time log. Students will set start and end times for each footage segment. At least one while loop must use time as its condition, ensuring precise control of how long footage is recorded at each height. 

After the 30 seconds of “recording”, the drone should hover briefly, land safely, and print the current time. This mirrors how professionals close out a job and log completion.

Extension

To deepen the CTE connection, try one of these:

• Add a third height level and justify its purpose

• Assign roles like “pilot,” “site manager,” or “client reviewer”

• Have students write a short inspection summary based on their flight

• Compare how this drone footage could replace or support manual inspections

These extensions help students see how technical skills fit into larger project workflows.

Real World

In the construction industry, drones are professional tools for site monitoring and inspection. Instead of workers walking long distances or climbing into risky areas, drones quickly capture aerial footage that:

• Shows project progress with up-to-date visuals managers can review instantly, helping keep projects on schedule and on budget. This replaces slow manual checks with precise, repeatable data collection.

• Improves safety by allowing inspectors to view hazardous zones from the ground, lowering the risk of falls or equipment injuries.

• Reduces costs and time by collecting accurate site images routinely, so teams spend less on traditional surveys and more on efficient decision-making.

• Supports communication with stakeholders and remote teams through shared videos, maps, and reports, which makes planning and collaboration clearer and faster.
  

By completing the drone programming challenge, students practice the same logic and workflows used in real CTE career fields like:

• Construction Technology – tracking site progress and validating work stages

• Engineering and Design – documenting build quality and alignment with specs

• Aviation and Drone Operations – planning controlled flights and recording data

• Information Technology – capturing and interpreting time-stamped digital media
  

This work reinforces precision, documentation, accountability, and automation—skills that are valued in technical careers where data-driven decisions and safety protocols matter every day.

In Conclusion

CTE Month is about helping students connect what they are learning in the classroom to who they can become beyond it. This site-monitoring challenge does exactly that by turning abstract coding concepts into applied, career-aligned skills used in construction, engineering, aviation, and technology fields. Students are not just flying a drone for fun, they are practicing the same planning, documentation, and precision required in real inspection and monitoring roles.

By designing time-based flight programs, capturing footage at multiple heights, and logging data before and after a mission, students experience what it means to operate like professionals. They learn that accuracy matters, safety is essential, and technology is a tool for solving real problems. These are the habits and mindsets that define successful careers in CTE pathways.

When students program with purpose, they are not just learning how to code. They are learning how to work.

Ready to bring real-world career skills into your classroom? Explore this lesson and more on Robolink Learn, and give your students opportunities to see where coding, drones, and CTE pathways can take them next.