Five days. No grades. Just drones. A CoDrone EDU summer camp is a fun, flexible way to keep students learning all summer long. To make planning easier, we’ve created a full week schedule plus a ready-to-use course in Robolink Learn. Lessons are sequenced, self-paced, and designed to keep students engaged from start to finish. 

The Schedule

You might notice some familiar lessons. They’re adapted from the Blockly courses in Robolink Learn, but streamlined for camp. Each day focuses on the most important concepts, with fewer activities and more room for hands-on learning and exploration. 

Day 0

Before students arrive, please be sure to prep your drones so that students can get started quickly. 

1. Be sure to update all drones and controllers before camp.
2. Label your drones and controllers so that pairs can be located easily.
3. Check batteries. Be sure to use AA batteries for the controller when flying remotely.
4. Bonus: complete the Robolink Certified Educator course for an educator-tailored crash course in all things CoDrone EDU .

Day 1

The first day will focus on getting to know the CoDrone EDU, how it works, and all its parts. Students will take part in their first piloted and programmed flights and hone those skills before exploring more advanced commands. It’s important to spend time before getting into the air so that students are familiar with the drone, are following best safety practices, and have a general understanding of how the drone works. Students will participate in Drone Charades and a “Guess that Letter” game for some light programming practice. Students will also get to act as drone mechanics while participating in a troubleshooting activity.

Day 2

On day two students will jump right into advanced flight commands. We’ll be laying the foundation for those advanced sensor activities, and we want students to have a clear understanding of conditionals and variables. Students will also get to experiment with the LEDs and buzzer on the drone. There is a lesson called, Drone Talent Show, and while it can be done asynchronously, we highly recommend having a show including everyone’s performances.  By the end of the day they will be able to write conditional statements that allow their drone to make decisions.

Day 3

At the halfway point of camp, students level up with more advanced conditionals, loops, and their first look at the CoDrone EDU sensors. The activities this day tend to be student favorites, with a project-based feel that makes the concepts stick. Students will tackle a Pizza Delivery challenge, fly their initials, dig into sensor research, and compete in the Pollinator Energy Relay. 

Day 4

Today is all about sensors! Students will get even more experience with the sensors on CoDrone EDU and how they can combine control structures to create really powerful programs to simulate real world tasks that drones are capable of doing. This day will be engaging for the students, and a great day of observing for you! If you decide to post your students’ engagement on social media, be sure to tag @robolinkinc on all major social media platforms and use the hashtag #CoDroneEDU.

At the time of this blog's publication, the Day 4 lessons will not be ready for implementation. We encourage you to review our Basecamp Lessons, starting with Introduction to Sensors. 

Day 5

The final day is all about pulling everything together. This could be set up as a competition or just a culminating way to practice everything they have learned. We suggest setting up two different courses to test student skill. If students haven’t already been working in groups, this would be a good time to do so. It can be fun to have the students come up with a team name and mascot to represent them and their drones for the day.

Piloting Competition

This obstacle course will test the student’s piloting abilities, where they’ll control the drone remotely while navigating obstacles. You can use a variety of materials to create this course. Things that we have found successful include: hula hoops, pool noodles, chairs, cardboard boxes, ping pong balls, pvc pipes, and of course the Aerial Drone Competition course materials. A way that you can add an additional challenge to flying the obstacle course is by using a blackout screen by using a tri fold poster board. The pilot sits behind the board while a teammate gives them instructions for flying the course. For scoring, you can award each obstacle points or base scores off of time.

Take a look at the example of obstacle courses from those in our community. Click on the images to go to the original post to learn more about the thought behind the courses.

Programming Competition

The second course could be the same as the first or completely different. But, this time students will need to use their programming skills to navigate the obstacles. For this course you could add a color landing pad so that students can utilize the color sensors. What will be important for this course is to give students a checklist of items that they must include in their program and items that are optional. You can assign points to each of the items on the checklist as well as points for speed. 

Supplemental Resources

Is your camp running longer than 5 days, or are you looking for activities that are outside of the Robolink Learn lesson portal? We have partnered with 

• Take Flight by CAST
• Robot Operations with CoDrone EDU by Carnegie Mellon Robotics Academy

In Summary

We’re excited to be part of your summer and would love to see what your students create. Share your photos and tag @robolinkinc with #CoDroneEDU so we can celebrate with you. If you’re interested in swag for your campers, reach out at info@robolink.com.