'Exhilarating' new course lets Yellowknife students build and fly their own drone

Every afternoon, the gym at Yellowknife's Sir John Franklin high school turns into an unofficial airfield.

"Exhilarating," says 17-year-old Deklen Crocker, while flying a drone about two metres in the air. "You have the goggles on, you are in the first-person view. It's really cool."

Crocker is one of six students piloting a new technology course, which will officially begin at the school next fall. Students will learn about science and technology by building and flying drones.

"Flying is cool, technology is cool," said teacher Rod Kennedy, who pitched and designed the course after attending a drone conference last year.

"It's exploding. They are looking for drone pilots all over the place," he said."So I figured we'd jump into drones and get ahead of everything."

From biologists surveying the tundra, to the RCMP and even real estate agents drones are popping up almost everywhere.

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Kennedy says drones fall in line with the school's STEM curriculum,bringingscience, technology, engineering, and mathematics into the real world.

The school ordered parts propellers, motors, wires and batteries to allow students to build the racing model quadcopters.

"You not only have to know a little programming, you have to do a little electrical work, some soldering," said Kennedy."It's mental, hands on.It's everything."

"It's extremely refreshing," said 17-year-old Sai Kottegajula, who wants to become a mechanical engineer.

"You aren't limited to a classroom where you have to plug in numbers and solve equations. With such a hands on course like this, it's really fun. Of course it looks really cool."

Deklen Crocker learned about building robots while living in Fort McMurray, Alta. Building drones was a natural next step, he said.

"Whenever you build something you fly it and you can see it work, there's a big gratifying feeling."

Along with building the drones, the students will learn basic aeronautics and how to use them safely. They'll also get to meet people who operate drones for a living.

"We want the real world aspect, not just the fun world aspect," said Kennedy, adding, with a laugh, that they"expect to put a few divots in the gym wall."

Each student is required to pass an online Federal Aviation Administration drone safety course as part of their course work. For now, all the flying will take place in Sir John's gym.

After the course is complete, Kennedy saidstudents will be given the option of purchasing the drones they've built.