Student Led Venture - Building a Drone Entrepreneurship!
We need a Phantom 3 Professional Body, four Carbon Fiber Propellers, four Propeller Guards, and a Battery. This will allow us to prepare our own drone for entrepreneurship.
The students have been inspired! The Drone Academy started after school last Friday and the attendance was great. Eduardo, Robert, Syler, Joey, and Josh have agreed to be the grade-level leaders for the team. I challenged them and they accepted. When complete, THEY will have built a business.
I have been developing projects and creating a fleet of drones to help get the vision of the drone academy started. Now, using this as inspiration and a model, they have been challenged to get their own resources. As opposed to buying the expensive, Ready To Fly packages, they have taken the initiative to get the big parts and piece the business together. After explaining some of the finances and showing them the opportunities available through DonorsChoose.org and CreditReport.com, they carefully planned their financial execution to keep the pricing where it needed to be. Part of the business plan will be to find ways to obtain other resources, which could be funded or earned via their new entrepreneurship. It is one big lesson in financial literacy and real-world business.
This is truly a business building endeavor. Students must acquire funds, obtain parts, develop their business, and be able to secure any additional items to help put their plan into action.
The teamwork needed, the leadership, the fundraising, and the earning potential are all pieces of the real-life learning process. The academic lessons range from simple and advanced physics concepts to the financial literacy aspects involved in putting together a business. They are also working with a business that uses drones commercially.
In Their Own Words
We are getting a drone to use for building our own mock business. Even if we don't make money, we can do it as volunteer work. We want to raise money through donations to buy the parts needed to build a drone and put a camera on it.
Five of us have been asked to lead the project. We have a group of students in the drone academy that will probably grow and grow, but we need to be the leaders. We are taking charge on this project to show that we can get the items needed to build our business, then add on to it as we need to. With these materials, we can teach the others on our team how to be successful. We shouldn't have to wait for the teacher to get the stuff for us if we want to be good leaders!
Our school is a STEM school, so we should be doing things that encourage students in those areas. Flying drones is not only fun and cool, but is a new skill that students can use for future success. Some colleges are offering degrees involving drones, so it would be great if we can learn these skills and maybe even get certifications while still in high school. We can also use our materials and skills to provide videos for our school and community.
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As a teacher-founded nonprofit, we're trusted by thousands of teachers and supporters across the country. This classroom request for funding was created by Mr. Schreiber and reviewed by the DonorsChoose team.