TKU’s Drone Pilot Curriculum –
Facilitation Guide 

Welcome! 👋

We’re glad you chose TKU’s Drone Pilot Curriculum to help prepare your students for the FAA Part 107 Exam, or just to introduce them to the world of drones. 

This course is designed to be accessible in its content for neurodiverse students, ages 14+. 

We worked hard to make sure this information is presented in a clear and approachable way, and the materials flexible enough to be adapted to your classroom’s needs. 

Overview

• Slides should be used in a classroom setting, either in-person or virtual

• Class website should be shared with the students and used as a study guide.

• Each chapter has a Cheat Sheet PDF you can print out or share with students.

• The lessons are designed to take 1.5 - 2 hours, with time for a scheduled breaks. You can split lessons as needed.

• The material is challenging and rapidly builds on top of concepts. We found that our students enjoyed the challenge. 

• Check in with your students often to see if they need to slow down or do some extra review and create a non-judgmental space for them to offer their honest feedback.  

• Ensure that students are aware this program will primarily consist of learning about rules and regulations (essential rules that airplane pilots must know about, too) rather than being hands-on or centered around videography. 

How to Run a Session 

• Start off with an icebreaker to build community. See how the students are feeling through periodic temperature checks. We did this by asking them to put an emoji 😀 in the chat and answer an icebreaker question that had to do with the topic of the day. To be more structured, you can also do this with a “which X are you feeling like today” and have these periodically after introducing different concepts. 

• Provide consistent recaps and reviews. Begin each session with a recap of the previous one and end with a comprehensive review to ensure retention

• Frequently punctuate with questions to gauge interest and understanding. 

• While some lecturing is necessary, ensure participation is engaging and interactive. 

• End with a Kahoot or Jeopardy-style games that incorporate review questions that your students struggled with.

• Consistently review content through slides with low-stakes quizzes. Experiment with various tools and methods to help students memorize information. Gamify content as much as possible.

•  Ask students to share one thing they learned after each session.

Tips for Teaching FAA Rules & Regulations (Chapter 1 & 2)

• This involves memorizing lots of numbers, so repetition is key.

• Play drone flight simulation games to break up learning about rules so the students don’t get overwhelmed! 

  • We played a game where students acted out the roles of remote PIC, Visual Observer, and Person Manipulating the Controls.

• Revisit these numbers whenever it is relevant. For example, it’s a good idea to review rules and regulations when weather comes up.

• The more real-world context that rules and information has, the better the information will be absorbed – this can include examples or short Youtube videos that demonstrate pilots using these rules in the real-world.  

Tips for Teaching the National Airspace System 

• Provide additional visuals if needed. It’s important to be able to translate the flat image on a Sectional Chart to the 3D image of how airspace actually looks (there are many useful videos on Youtube that demonstrate this).

• Repetition is key to help students recognize classes of airspace at a glance.

• Class E airspace is quite confusing. This course covers three types of Class E airspace–it’s easy to gloss over where each of them starts and ends, but make sure to emphasize their differences because they are portrayed in different ways on a Sectional Chart. 

• The National Airspace System lessons have a lot of overlap with the Sectional Charts lessons, but it makes sense to teach the NAS first. The airspace markings are some of the biggest features you’ll see at a glance when looking at a Sectional Chart for the first time, so having a solid understanding of them before moving onto smaller details will help students feel more comfortable with interpreting these maps!

Tips for Teaching Sectional Charts 

Tips for Teaching Airport Operations

• Visualizing the runways can be kind of confusing. Make sure everyone is on the same page with understanding runway directions. 

• In an in-person setting, it might be a good idea to have the students get up and act out the motions of airplanes to understand their position relative to the airport. 

Tips for Teaching Weather

• Videos on how different types of weather adversely affect drones can put the importance of this topic into perspective. Many drone content creators on Youtube share their experiences with bad weather, so those would be great resources to look out for.  

• METAR and TAF reports are difficult. Break these up piece-by-piece and share the decoding tools that are linked. It might help to encourage your students to think of these like a secret code that pilots understand. 

Tips for Teaching Drone Flight Operations

• Emphasize that everything we do is always to increase the safety and efficiency of our missions.

• The risk assessment matrix is pretty confusing and not designed in the most aesthetic way. Make sure the students are clear on how it works, and that when we’re assigning numerical values to likelihood and severity, we’re estimating based on past experiences and assumptions.

• You can introduce it by using non-drone-related examples (like how dangerous it would be to swim the ocean), and then bring in drone examples. 

Keep Activities Simple

• Make sure that the activities reinforce the concepts, are not open-ended, and are clearly defined, with material provided and clear instructions to aid them. 

• Use tools that your students are already comfortable with to make sure that students are more focused on learning the material, rather than learning new software for an activity. 

• Activities can also include elements of social bonding, storytelling, and creativity to strengthen rapport and empowerment within the community.  

Make it Your Own

• If you notice recurring patterns or discussions, incorporate them into the class. Personalize activities and make them enjoyable for your students.

• If there’s a quiz software that you like, consider remaking the quizzes to suit your preferences.

Additional Considerations

• Consider organizing study groups or tutoring sessions for further assistance.

• Seek student feedback on class effectiveness and areas for improvement.

• We can’t guarantee that a student who takes this course will definitely pass the FAA Part 107 Exam, even though we made sure to cover all the areas of knowledge that appear on the test. 

• When students ask, "Why do we need to know this?" explain that this material enhances situational awareness during drone missions and helps them appear more professional to potential clients.

• Offer positive reinforcement frequently, and try to make each session a fun, interactive, and encouraging experience that students look forward to!