North Nodaway’s drone program prepares students for future careers in soaring industry

By Jacki Wood

The sky’s the limit for students enrolled in North Nodaway R-VI’s new drone program which fits right into the school district’s mission statement of “Preparing Productive Citizens That Are College and Career Ready.”

“The program allows students to develop skills which help employability after high school,” Cody Bix, HS/MS science teacher, said. “They can also take various avenues, as the drone industry can be applied to many different fields.”

The course offered at North Nodaway is called Innovative Science and the program materials are through a company called SkyOp.

“As far as I know, our drone program is the first in the state that focuses on preparing the students to become FAA certified,” Bix said.

The course functions as a test prep course to prepare students to take the certification exam called the Part 107, and Bix said this test allows a drone pilot to fly commercially and legally under FAA regulations.

“Our course goes over the rules that pilots must follow and helps give them the information they need to pass the test,” he said. “We also work on flight skills, using two different types of drones, both of which are indoor drones but are very different. Our SYMA drones are completely manual control and our TELLO drones are less pilot intensive as they are able to automatically maintain altitude.”

There are currently 11 students enrolled in the course, and next year, the district is looking at expanding its drone fleet to include outdoor drones.

“This will allow us to prepare the students more for potential careers in the drone industry,” Bix said. “The outdoor drones, while similar to indoor ones, are the drones that commercial drone pilots would use day to day.”

Bix and agriculture teacher Troy Nally attended training last summer in Rochester, NY, in preparation for the drones course. They received hands-on training with four different models including both indoor and outdoor. The instructors coached them through various flight skills as well as how to use different apps that work in conjunction with the drones.

Bix said he believes the program is a benefit to the district’s students as drones are a continually growing field.

“There are many possibilities for drone pilots out there that can be tailored to what the student’s interests are,” he said.

Some of the fields using drones include agriculture, construction, real estate, photography, transportation and public safety, he said.

“What excites me most about being able to offer and teach the program is just seeing students having that light bulb click in their heads when they master different flight skills,” Bix said. “Especially with the SYMA as they are a difficult drone to fly comfortably. Seeing the students get the hang of how to hover the drone in place and maneuver it how they want is a cool thing to see.”