Day 1: Design a Wildlife-Tracking Drone System

Daily Learning Contract

• Topic: Engineering Systems
• Objective: Students will describe Engineering work and identify career opportunities by translating a fictional wildlife need into a labeled system blueprint and occupation work product.
• TEKS: d(1)(B), d(1)(C)
• Demonstration of Learning: Individual FYF p. 105 wildlife-tracking blueprint with six labeled system jobs plus one evidence-based redesign and occupation work product.

Lesson Overview

Before Class

1. Post the Student Guide and licensed FYF images. Use FYF p. 105 as the default blueprint surface.
2. Post the three-page Design Companion as the no-workbook, enlarged, or annotation route. Do not print it automatically for students using FYF p. 105.
3. Project the supplied wetland-bird system model in the Student Guide. Its six job labels are a finished example for a different mission; students must adapt the jobs rather than copy its components. Use the supplied non-example, “camera, propeller, battery,” to show that names without jobs are not complete labels.
4. Keep H&L optional. The workbook opener and fixed role card are the complete career route.
5. Do not search for a random conservation-drone image during class. Use the licensed scenario and the CCE model so source and copyright boundaries are clear.

Warm-Up: Tool or System? (5 min)

Students list three things a drone may do and then add one job the aircraft cannot do alone. Guide them toward sensing, navigation, data transmission, analysis, maintenance, and a user who makes decisions from the evidence.

Activity 1: Read the User Need (8 min)

Source: FYF pp. 103-104

Students read the Engineering opener and the fictional conservation challenge. They record:

• the user;
• the animal and environment;
• three mission needs; and
• two constraints caused by humidity, darkness, dense trees, weather, or animal behavior.

Clarify that a UAS includes the aircraft, controller, software, communication link, payload, operator, and data workflow. A camera attached to a quadcopter is not the whole solution.

Activity 2: Convert Needs into Requirements (7 min)

Model one requirement:

Need: locate an animal at night. Requirement: the system must gather usable low-light or thermal evidence and send a location record to the research team.

Students write one requirement each for flight, sensing/data, communication, and environmental protection. They label assumptions that still need testing instead of inventing technical certainty.

Activity 3: Build the Blueprint (20 min)

Source: FYF p. 105

Students use the workbook blueprint space. The companion provides the same large-format route when the workbook is missing or an enlarged/annotation version is needed. Students label:

1. flight system;
2. power source;
3. navigation/obstacle sensing;
4. data collection payload;
5. communication/data return; and
6. one feature for humidity, darkness, dense vegetation, weather, or minimizing wildlife disturbance.

Each label includes a short job statement. Artistic detail does not affect the evidence. Students may draw, annotate a starter image, use shapes, type a labeled list, or record a private explanation with the same six jobs.

Activity 4: Test One Changed Mission (5 min)

New fictional mission: track sea turtles on a remote beach at night without disturbing them.

Students name:

• one component they would keep;
• one component they would change; and
• evidence from the new environment that explains the change.

Exit Check (5 min)

Students add this final evidence to the blueprint or companion rather than completing another handout:

1. Name one blueprint component you would change for the sea-turtle mission.
2. Explain which mission condition makes that change necessary.
3. Name one Engineering or Transportation occupation that would help test, build, operate, or interpret this system. Explain its job.

(d(1)(B), d(1)(C))

Teacher Key and Monitoring

• A complete label states what the component does, not only its name.
• Good redesign evidence may include open shoreline, salt/sand, darkness, nesting behavior, limited power access, long distance, or wildlife disturbance.
• Accept several occupations when the job is defensible: robotics/aerospace engineer, aerospace engineering technician, mapping technician, cartographer/photogrammetrist, electronics technician, wildlife biologist, or data analyst.
• Do not require GPS tags, thermal cameras, satellite links, or solar power as universally correct. These are options whose fit and constraints must be tested.
• Lap 1, minute 12: check four students or teams for a requirement that can be observed or tested. If two or more write only a feature name, stop and rebuild one “must + job” requirement together.
• Lap 2, minute 27: check all six system jobs. Give one prompt only: “What does this part do for the user?” If a student is behind, provide the six job headings but not the solution components.
• Safe trim: shorten the warm-up share and use one changed-mission sentence, but protect all six labels, one redesign, and the occupation work product.
• Collect/retain: students keep the FYF blueprint through Day 5. The private practice Assignment holds the required four requirements, assumption/tradeoff, changed-mission response, and occupation work product; a photo of FYF p. 105 may be attached. Paper-companion students turn in the companion once.

Supports and Equal Routes

• Use six icon-and-text system cards and a partially labeled model.
• Provide full-width response areas for each explanation.
• Drawing, Canvas annotation, shapes, typed labels, and private audio are equal.
• A missing partner uses the self-check; no public share is required.
• An absent student uses the embedded scenario, model, and packet without H&L or open search.