Feb. 23—Aiden Zeider, Aden Herrmann and Kaiden Leach stood outside of Pioneer Jr./Sr. High School Tuesday afternoon, a drone hovering in front of them.
First it was at eye level, buzzing like a bee. Then Leach, and eighth grader, pushed on a controller lever, and it rose higher. And higher. And higher.
The students, members of the AV Club, had never flown the drone outside before. They marveled as it became a pinprick in the blue sky.
Kelly Kollmar, a science teacher and the AV Club sponsor, brought the drone to Pioneer. Her father is a drone operator, and she had always been interested in his work. So she started a Donor's Choose project. The donors chose, and Pioneer had a drone.
There are 21 students in the AV Club. So far Leach, Zeider and Herrmann are the only ones certified to fly the drone.
To earn the right to fly the drone, they first had to study the piloting and safety rules and regulations. Then they had to pass a test Kollmar designed. And finally, there was the Federal Aviation Administration Trust Test, a free test that certifies recreational drone users.
Herrmann, a freshman, said questions involved things such as how high they could fly the drone without an actual pilot's license (200 feet), where it can be flown and keeping the drone within line of sight.
"I figured it would be like the drones you can buy at Walmart for $20 where you send it off and it automatically hits the ceiling or wall," he said. "But it just slowly lifts up, stays and goes from side to side real smoothly."
The drone, a DJI Mini 3 Pro, is capable of recording 4K high-definition video at 60 frames per second. It also features FocusTrack, which allows the drone to follow a subject.
There are many career opportunities where piloting a drone is a needed skill. These include the military, broadcast journalism and filmmaking. Drones are also used in agriculture to monitor fields, to examine roofing for possible repair needs, to look at power lines and for search and rescue efforts.
It's one of the things Kollmar loves about AV Club. The students get to learn STEM skills and practice them in real world settings.
The club began in 2019 when RTCtv4, an online site that streams events from schools like Pioneer, Caston and Rochester, reached out to Pioneer Jr./Sr. High School principal Jeff Brooke. They had equipment they were willing to loan the school if students would help film Pioneer football games. Kollmar stepped up to sponsor the AV Club because she had an interest in filmmaking. RTCtv4 helped the students set up the equipment, and they have run with their duties ever since.
"We help show people the things the school is doing, events and everything that is going on in the school," said Zeider, a sophomore. "We'll livestream games so people who can't come will be able to watch the games from home. We do that through RTCtv4. We'll also edit videos. If the band or choir is doing a concert then we will go in and record the performance and edit it later and send it out to people who weren't able to make it."
Zeider is excited to use the drone to record gameplay during a football game.
"That can also help the players see what they are doing from above if we send it to the coach," he said.
Editing is something the students have enjoyed doing. Kollmar said Leach had been particularly helpful, always asking in his downtime if she has any videos that need edits.
The students have a small studio set up next to a classroom complete with a camera and green screen where they can record video and interview people.
Hermann also performs in Pioneer theater productions and said it has been very helpful to have experiences both on stage and in front of a camera. He said he knew how to look at the camera correctly, how to act, how to be mindful of his posture when he is being filmed and how to speak.
The AV Club students are excited to help showcase what their school is doing while learning skills that will enhance their resume.
And, one day later, they finally gave their drone a name: Apollo.
___
(c)2023 the Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, Ind.)
Visit the Pharos-Tribune (Logansport, Ind.) at www.pharostribune.com
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
