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Cut down your planning time with the complete Drones in Forestry teacher toolkit, available to download for free! The ‘Drones in Forestry’ resource was recently awarded Best national Digital/Online Resource 2022 by the Australian Geography Teacher’s Association.

The award was presented in recognition of the quality of the products in terms of their:

• currency
• authenticity
• application of contemporary understandings about how students learn
• use of cutting-edge production
• contemporary and innovative style in supporting geographical education in Australian schools.

Judge’s comments on the resources:

“The ForestLearning and She Maps Drones in Forestry units dynamically engage with emerging technology for a contemporary learning experience for all students. The significant support and resourcing attached to the unit empowers teachers to implement contemporary geographic tools in their curriculum, underpinned by strong vocational links”.

Overview:

Drones in Forestry is an innovative, highly engaging and technology-rich unit of work for Years 5-6 and 9-10 Geography and Digital Technologies classrooms that allows students to explore and understand through real-world case studies how drones and Geographic Information systems (GIS), including remote sensing, assist forestry workers to sustainably manage the forest environments. The information, case studies and activities are nationally relevant and applicable.

Through the unit, students will:

• understand systems thinking
• analyse the environmental, social, and economic impact of digital systems in forestry
• analyse interconnections between people, places and environments and explain how these interconnections influence people, and change places and environments
• develop a Digital Systems in Forestry Report for potential clients or financial backers including a risk assessment plan
• research content, source assets, and develop a website using HTML and CSS to present a case study of a forestry worker
• design, define and implement a manual drone flight plan in a simulated forestry training environment
• define, design, implement and evaluate/refine code to demonstrate an automated drone flight in a simulated forestry situation.

The Teaching and Learning resources of this unit consist of Australian Curriculum mapped lesson sequences with a range of hyperlinked and online accessible supporting resources and assessment rubrics. The unit has been designed in discrete modules to cater for equipment access, time constraints and curriculum requirements.

The Drones in Forestry resources consist of:

• Lesson sequence with hyperlinks to supporting resources
• Australian Curriculum mapping document
• Assessment rubrics mapped to the Australian Curriculum Achievement Standards
• Student response booklets – Early Forestry, Digital Systems in Forestry, and Sarah Maddison Case Study
• Student activity sheet – Guess the word sets A and B
• Risk Management Plan template
• StoryMaps – interactive visual web-based guides with engaging embedded videos, including ForestVR 360-degree videos, and maps.
• Accompanying supporting documents such as: How to use the ForestLearning ForestVR app synchronisation tool, Drone pre-flight safety checklist, Sample solution for Drone mission with control structures, variables, She Maps Epicollect 5 minidrone pre-flight checklist, and a timer.
• Downloadable highly visual printable classroom Poster – Drones in Forestry

These resources enable teachers to:

• complete the curriculum-aligned activities in their classroom
• cater to varied student ability, learning styles, and resource availability.
• access all required resources freely to use digitally online or download and print

And while schools don’t need drones for students to benefit from this resource, students will have the opportunity to code and fly their own drone flight path to solve a hypothetical industry problem!

You can access these free and innovative resources at the ForestLearning website:

• Years 5-6: https://forestlearning.edu.auresources/drones-in-forestry-years-5-6
• Years 9-10: https://forestlearning.edu.auresources/drones-in-forestry-years-9-10
• The classroom poster Drones in Forestry is also found here:  https://forestlearning.edu.auresources/drones-in-forestry-classroom-poster-pdf?session=1

Also available to download as a separate PDF is the ‘Drones in forestry’ poster – an excellent resource for your classroom. The poster attractively outlines the many ways drones are used by foresters.

Find these engaging resources at the ForestLearning website:

Years 5–6: https://forestlearning.edu.auresources/drones-in-forestry-years-5-6

Years 9–10: https://forestlearning.edu.auresources/drones-in-forestry-years-9-10

Poster: https://forestlearning.edu.auresources/drones-in-forestry-classroom-poster-pdf