Students at three regional South Australian schools will soon be able to use drones and robotics in their studies as part of a new State Government grant.
The Yorketown Area School, Stansbury and Warooka Primary Schools on the Yorke Peninsula have received funding for the new technologies, as part of the Specialist School Grant to provide agricultural, mathematics and science education in the modern digital technological age.
Yorketown Area School senior teacher Stephen Talbot said staff were researching and identifying the hardware so they could integrate it into activities at the school.
"We're identifying how to use the equipment correctly and looking at programs so students can engage in the equipment from a local point of view," he said.
"Our goal is to make students proficient in digital tech, solve problems and get students to become very creative.
"Hopefully, they'll know how to use this equipment when they get jobs outside of school."
Digital technology to help farmers
The drone and robotic technology will not only benefit local students, it will also benefit farmers.
Mr Talbot said the ultimate intent of the program was to provide students with the opportunity to engage with and understand the current and future role of digital technologies in modern rural industries.
The students will collect data sets through experiments with mobile and in situ field sensory equipment, then analyse the data to interpret the meaning and significance with respect to on-farm decision making.
Mr Talbot said it was a chance to collaborate with the local community.
"We would love to mount sensors on the drones and beam the data back to the school, and hopefully share with the local farmers as well," he said.
"The data we collect we can share with the local community."
Katrina Elliot, from the Department of Education and Child Development in South Australia, said the projects on the Yorke Peninsula would make students more innovative as future farmers.
"Many of the students undertaking this program come farming families," she said.
"They are looking every day at how they're going to make the farming procedures more efficient, effective and economically viable."
New equipment to be rolled out to other schools
The schools on the Yorke Peninsula are only a few where drones and robotic technologies are being implemented.
Ms Elliot said schools across the state were using the technology.
She said teachers statewide were learning how to use new technologies in a classroom setting.
