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Day 1: H&L Engineering Cluster + "Protecting Wildlife"

Lesson Overview
Time 50 minutes
Objectives Tour the H&L Engineering cluster (Ch 8) including the Drone (Unmanned Vehicle) Engineer pathway; complete the H&L "Protecting Wildlife" Career Climb activity by designing a wildlife tracker robot blueprint
TEKS d(1)(B), d(1)(C)
Deliverable Completed Wildlife Tracker Robot blueprint with labeled components for flight, navigation, and data collection
Materials Chromebooks, H&L accounts, H&L Workbook (Ch 8, pp. 121-122, "Protecting Wildlife"), printed Robot Blueprint sheet, projector for cluster tour

Warm-Up (5 min)

WARM-UP: Name three things you have seen a drone do, in person, on TV, or online.

Take 5-6 student responses on the board. Common: take photos at a wedding, race in a competition, deliver a package, film a sports event, spy in a movie, spray crops. Bridge: today we are going to design a drone for one of the most useful jobs they do, tracking endangered animals in the wild.

Activity 1: H&L Engineering Cluster Tour (12 min)

Source: H&L Workbook Ch 8, pp. 120-121, "Exploring the World of Engineering"

[H&L PLATFORM] Direct students to open Hats & Ladders and navigate to the Engineering cluster. The workbook (Ch 8) instructs students to "go to the Hats & Ladders app and click on the Engineering Cluster" and explore the cluster and pathways. Students use Stop and Jot, pause once to write the most surprising engineering career.

The chapter (Ch 8) lists the six engineering pathways:

  1. Engineering Foundations
  2. Geospatial Engineering and Land Surveying
  3. Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
  4. Drone (Unmanned Vehicle) Engineer: the key one for this week
  5. Electrical Engineering
  6. Civil Engineering

The Drone Engineer pathway in H&L is the official confirmation that drones are now considered an engineering pathway, not just a hobby. This is the source grounding for the rest of the week.

After the cluster tour, students browse the Hat Finder for 3-4 engineering Hats: Mechanical Engineer, Aerospace Engineer, Drone Engineer, Robotics Technician, Electrical Engineer, Civil Engineer.

Facilitation Tip

Some students will want to spend 20 minutes browsing Hats. Set a 10-minute timer and stop the room when it goes off. The cluster tour is the warm-up, not the main event today.

Activity 2: H&L "Protecting Wildlife" Robot Blueprint (28 min)

Source: H&L Workbook Ch 8, pp. 121-122, "Protecting Wildlife" (Career Climb activity)

Read the workbook framing aloud (paraphrased from p. 121-122): Engineers work with people from many other career fields, including wildlife conservationists. Conservationists study and protect animals, but they often run into challenges that make it hard to follow animals and gather data. That is where engineering comes in.

The student role: A Robotics Engineer who uses technical skills to design and build machines that solve problems. A wildlife conservationist has come to you with a challenge. They need a small, lightweight robot that can fly into dense forests and track animals. Specifically, they want to track jaguars, parrots, or tree-dwelling monkeys.

The student task: Create a blueprint for the tracking robot. The blueprint must show: - How the robot will fly - How it will navigate around trees - How it will collect and send data back to researchers - Use sketches, labels, and descriptions

Step 1: Brainstorm with a Partner (5 min)

Pair up. Discuss the workbook prompts (p. 121): - Will your robot track jaguars, parrots, or tree-dwelling monkeys? - How will your robot fly? Quadcopter rotors? Wings? Glide-and-perch? - How will your robot navigate around trees? Cameras? Lidar? GPS? - How will it collect data? GPS tags? Cameras? Microphones for animal sounds? - How will it send data back? Radio? Cellular? Satellite uplink?

Step 2: Design the Blueprint (20 min)

The workbook (p. 122) instructs students to use a digital tool or the space below to sketch the robot blueprint with labeled key features. Distribute the printed Blueprint sheet, students sketch in pencil first, then label in pen.

The blueprint must include labels for at least: - Flight system (rotors, wings, propellers, how it stays in the air) - Power source (battery, solar, fuel) - Navigation system (cameras, sensors, GPS, how it avoids trees) - Data collection equipment (cameras, microphones, GPS tags, how it tracks animals) - Communication antenna (how data gets back to researchers) - Bonus: Stealth features so animals don't notice the drone (camo paint, quiet motors)

Students who draw a generic quadcopter without labels will need a redirect, the point of the blueprint is the labeled components, not the artistic quality.

Facilitation Tip

Project a real conservation drone image (search "wildlife conservation drone", many examples on FAA and NPS sites). Show students that real conservation drones look like military quadcopters with cameras hanging underneath. They do not need to invent a new shape. They need to think about which sensors and communication systems matter for tracking specific animals.

This activity is the bridge from "drones in general" to "drones used by engineers for specific purposes." It sets up Day 2's industry research.

DOK 2: How would you describe the connection between a wildlife conservationist's needs and a robotics engineer's design choices? Why does the engineer need to understand the conservationist's job?

Exit Ticket (5 min)

EXIT TICKET (Mini-Case / Scenario Application) · Printable PDF:

Scenario: A new conservation team needs a drone to track sea turtles on remote beaches at night. Very different from tracking jaguars in dense forest.

  1. Which ONE component from MY wildlife tracker blueprint would I CHANGE for the sea-turtle-at-night mission, and why?

My change: _____

Why: ____________

  1. Name ONE engineering career from the H&L cluster tour that SURPRISED me today (Drone Engineer, Mechanical Engineer, Aerospace Engineer, Robotics Technician, Electrical Engineer, Civil Engineer):

Career: _____

  1. In one sentence, what makes this career DIFFERENT from a Drone Engineer?

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

Differentiation

  • Support: Pre-printed blueprint with the rotors and battery already drawn. Students add navigation, data collection, and communication labels. Pair with a partner who can act as the conservationist explaining what they need.
  • Extension: Add a power management plan, how long can the drone fly before recharging, and what does the conservationist do when the drone needs to return?
  • ELL: Bilingual blueprint label sheet. Pre-teach: Drone = Dron, Engineer = Ingeniero, Wildlife = Vida silvestre, Tracker = Rastreador, Camera = Cámara, Battery = Batería, Sensor = Sensor.