[audio logo]

Speaker: OTAN. Outreach and Technical Assistance Network.

Tonie Smith: Well, good morning. Thank you all those that were here before me. I was in the wrong room a couple of times. But we are online and it looks like connected via Zoom as well as in person.

If you're looking for the drones for education session, you're in the right place. If you weren't looking for the drones for education, well, we're glad you're here, and we want you to stay. Invite some friends. Bring some more people over.

All right, so we do have a bit of a PowerPoint presentation that we'll go through. I will promise you that I'll try to make it as non-boring and PowerPoint-ish as possible, if that's an actual word. Let's-- they're here. There we go. OK, that's me.

All right, so my name is Tonie Smith. My contact information is actually on the end of the slides as well. So at whichever point you want to write down my name, number, email, feel free to give me a call. I do work for the Sweetwater Union High School District in Adult CTE education. This is my-- finishing up my third year as the teacher for the drones program.

And our drones program, like we'll get into today, has several components. My background, however, is not in CTE education. Let's see if this is going to advance for me. It doesn't look like it wants to. There we go. OK, now it's working. All right.

My background is actually-- I came out of industry. So I was working as a commercial drone pilot for public safety prior to coming into the district. I actually came into the drone's course as a guest speaker. And it just happened to be good timing because the actual instructor for the program had had a change in circumstances, had to leave mid-semester. And so when I came in as a guest speaker, they said, can you please come back and stay? They're about to post this position.

I, at the time, was working as a recruiter. So I was recruiting all over the state for drone as first response programs. You've actually got some. I've used to spend quite a bit of time up here between Santa Monica and Beverly Hills, Redondo Beach. Those were all programs that I was recruiting and hiring drone pilots for, as well as the drone program down in Chula Vista, which is South San Diego, one of the largest departments there in San Diego County.

And the challenge that I always had as I was posting ads and trying to reach into the community to find people to come in and fill what I consider to be very entry-level jobs, they were coming in and applying, and they were enthused about it, but they didn't qualify in reality, all right? So it was a struggle constantly. Everyone thought that they qualified. Those that love drones. Some of them had drones for forever.

But there were always key elements of their eligibility that they just didn't have. And the reason was the majority had not received any type of formal education or instruction. They didn't have any professional background or experience, and they didn't even know what that framework looked like.

So after I was in that position for a few years, I said, you know what? This is a perfect opportunity. The school that was hiring, they're right across the bridge from one of my largest departments, so I was like, I'll set up a feeder program. If I know what I'm looking for when I'm hiring, why not set up a program that's going to help people with an interest to develop those skills as they come in? So that's what we're going to go through today.

So depending on where you're at-- how many are educators? Do we have teachers here? Yes, administration. Administration. OK, awesome.

Others? Just interested parties. OK. All right, great. Feel free to ask questions as we go through, all right?

We will go through a bit of information. You're going to have a bit of our student experience, and I'm going to share some of the challenges that we've run into, or myself that I've run into in reaching my goals with the program. But then I'm also going to share some resources with you at the end, OK?

So this is what I always go back to. The purpose of CTE-- to integrate core academic knowledge with technical and occupational knowledge to provide students with a pathway to post-secondary education and careers. I love this because I really do feel like it sums up what our purpose is in CTE. Like, how do we bring these adult students that have not maybe even explored the opportunity to find a passion, find an interest in something where they can add to their educational experience and then qualify for a job that's going to earn them something other than minimum wage, which is really the goal.

So how do we do that with drones? Well, some of those academic foundations have to be there, all right? So reading comprehension, math skills to a certain degree, digital literacy, our critical thinking, problem-solving abilities, technical skills, and then effective communication. Now, reading this list, you look at it and you go, well yeah, that makes an employable person, right?

But for our teachers, how many of your students are really coming in that they've met their potential in all of those areas? They really haven't, right? And we haven't even gotten into the specifics of the industry requirements yet.

So part of what I find is my opportunity is to be able to help the students relate drones with all of these things. If they can find an area that they're passionate about and have an interest in those things, well, then it's easier to convince them, hey, you should probably take that math course that you were putting off or finish your GED. Because in reality, you're going to need those essential skills as you move forward. And those skills then are be able to put into practice in any one of these, and probably dozens and dozens of other industries.

Coming into commercial drone use-- or commercial use of drones, we have to think about not just the technical skill set, but also what the demand is in the industry. Right now, there is an opportunity for students who just want to pass their FAA certification and they want to be drone pilots. However, that demand is not as strong as it was maybe three, four, or five years ago, where all they had to do was have the commercial certification. And people were tripping over themselves trying to hire enough pilots because the regulations had changed, and companies realized that they needed to have actual certified pilots, which they didn't have.

So I think fires, Commonwealth Edison, PG&E, they were all grabbing as many certificated pilots as they could because they needed them for their tower inspections to meet their requirements. But as the years have gone by, the ability to find people who hold a certification, it's there. And companies have found that there was a gap between the drone operator and what they needed as far as an employee who also had an understanding of their industry, the skills that they needed for their actual work environment.

So what I tell my students coming in is they've got to find what it is that they want to do with their drone. They can't just come in and say, oh, I can fly a drone. Well, that's great. A kid can go to Best Buy and buy themselves a drone, and they can fly a drone. That does not make them employable. What does make them employable? Well, being able to show that they have the background and certification that they needed to qualify to use their drones commercially.

So our first course is designed to help them meet that industry certification requirement. The industry certification is the FAA Part 107 certification. Has anybody heard of that? No? Anyone hold any kind of an FAA certification, pilot or otherwise? No? OK.

So our course, we do not actually administer the test itself because this test can only be administered by an FAA testing center, which a lot of times, they're at airports or pilot training facilities. What we do do however, is we take the framework that the FAA has posted-- and it's online. You can go to faadronezone.gov, and they'll list out the body of knowledge that the FAA is like, hey, if you know this and you can test out of these topic areas, we're going to give you a commercial certification and allow you to operate in the national airspace for two years as a commercial operator.

Side note, the interesting little trivia bit, someone could go, and if they're really good at testing, they could test out of this and have never touched a drone before. OK, but as far as the FAA is concerned, they are legally able to operate as a commercial drone operator. Now, as far as the industry is concerned, they don't care how long you've had your Part 107. If you don't know how to fly, if you don't have your accumulated flight hours, or if you don't have a safe, standardized flight practice somehow registered or logged, you're not hirable, OK? So this is the first part though. Yes?

Audience: What is the website?

Tonie Smith: faadronezone.gov.

Audience: All one word?

Tonie Smith: All one word. And if you search it-- yeah, anything that comes up as a ".gov". And on that website, you're going to see a link that says, "become a certificated pilot."

They've got several different categories on that website. One is for recreational. You don't want the recreational. The certificated pilot pathway is the one for commercial operations. Another question, yeah?

Audience: Is it all theoretical?

Tonie Smith: It is. Yep, there's no practical. It's all theoretical, yep. And you're going to get a little sample of what that's like today. So hopefully, you came with your test-taking hats on today so that you get an idea of what that involves.

It's completely theoretical. It's a knowledge test. It does have a cost to take that test. So what my first course does, and it's a prerequisite for students to participate in any of the other drones courses that we have, they first have to come in and sit through lectures and take tests and turn in assignments in order to go through all of the recommended body of knowledge to be able to pass this test, OK?

They do administer-- well, I do administer practice exams as well. They take one every week because part of the challenge that a lot of our students have, if they are not coming from an academic background, test anxiety is a real, real roadblock. Just the thought of taking a test. And then you tell them they're going to go to an FAA pilot facility and sit down in a closed room with a proctor and they're going to be watched and they're going to have to answer 60 questions, it freaks them out, right? And so they don't even know what to do with that. And so it also inhibits their ability to take this test successfully.

Our success rate for our program has been very good. Of the three years-- yes? No. So the test can be taken when they are 14. However, commercial certification is only given when they are 16 and over. So if you have high school students, if you need to administer this in a high school program, high schoolers as well, they can take their commercial certification. And if they wanted to start a business on the side, they could do so in any of the 50 states in the United States, OK? So yeah, 16 years and older to hold a commercial certification, OK?

All right. So that's the first course. So the first course is test prep. We'll talk about some of the challenges that go along with that here in a bit.

Now, the second course is what everyone thinks they're signing up for when they sign up for our drones course. Oop, let's go back here. All right. They think they're signing up to walk in, and at the first day, I'm going to put a drone in their hand, and we're going to fly around the neighborhood with the drones. That does not happen. They do not get to touch a drone in my course until they pass their ground school course and their FAA exam, and then they're able to enroll in the unmanned aircraft systems operations course.

Now, in this course, they learned about drone components, what all of the pieces are, how they interact, their function. We also go through a tactical flight training program. And again, that tactical flight training is what I was using for the police departments, right? So the pilots coming into us had to learn how to operate large, complex, enterprise-level drone systems, not just the toys that they were flying and doing everything automated with.

They really get comfortable using a variety of different drone platforms as well. So not just one brand or two brands, we've got multiple different systems so that they also can get comfortable picking up a new system that they've never used before and saying, OK, well, I understand the components. I understand what I'm looking for. I should be able to figure this out. Because as an emerging technology, there are always new platforms coming out, always new models, always new systems.

Students that are intimidated by new technology are going to have a very hard time working in the drone industry, right? So getting them over that fear of, oh, I've never seen that drone before, that's also part of the objectives of this course. I give them a drone, give them a box. Here's your checklist. You know the process. You know the components. Figure it out.

Have one of my students that-- he laughs because he's been with me for three years. He just keeps coming back. I'm like, why? So I put him to work. He's my troubleshooter. Student has a question, I say, ask Mauricio And he's like, yeah. He's like, you guys should be thankful for me. He's like, my first year here, the only thing she would tell me is figure it out. But he did.

And when he figured it out, he also figured out that it's something that he's good at. He came out of high school, didn't go to college, was too intimidated to even enroll, thought that there was really nothing that he could study as a career. Well, now, he's looking into programs for computer programming and computer science because he's figured out that he's actually a lot better at those things than he ever imagined he could be. He didn't participate in any clubs in high school, was very shy, was enrolled in our DART program as well because he did have some learning challenges. But to see the transformation of not being a confident learner, not being engaged and not thinking about a potential career path to now, he set goals for himself, it's great, great thing to see. And all because he learned how to figure things out. He learned that he was much better with technical, computer-based programming than he actually thought he was.

So there's a lot of basic skills incorporated into this second course. But then once they're flying-- again, we said just knowing how to fly a drone is not the guarantee for employment. There is a third course. This third course is called Intro to Mission Planning. Our Intro to Mission Planning course takes their certification and now their basic skills and understanding of drone systems, and it puts them into real world working scenarios. So they're given projects. They learn how to use software systems that are common in different industries, like construction, mapping, some of those things that they could turn into deliverables even if they wanted to have drones as a side job.

They want to work for real estate, or they want to go to work for a contractor. They want to create maps. They want to do something else. So all of those, the actual content varies semester to semester because a lot of it depends on what kind of projects I'm asked to help out with, what kind of opportunities they are, and also what kind of software is being developed at the time when that comes out, OK?

The other thing that they do learn in this course is semi-autonomous flight planning. Sometimes the courses will be like, it's autonomous. There is no such thing as fully autonomous drone operations yet, all right? You'll see that buzzword a lot.

But what this refers to is they learn how to use software programs where they can go in and either using GPS coordinates or creating these geofenced maps, where, on the computer, they pre-program the flight of the drone, what they want it to do, where they wanted to take pictures. And then we take the drones out into the field, they hit a button, and the drone takes off, and they get to watch to see if it actually flies the flight course that they programmed in. Again, a great skill to know and an alternative to actual just manual flight. Most of the industry is moving towards those autonomous flight operations. The drone pilots in the next 5 to 10 years are not going to be the ones that have controllers in their hands, OK? The industry, the FAA regulators, they want everything to move towards autonomous management of drone flights. That means that instead of just being comfortable with operating a single drone with a controller, they're going to be looking for those that can monitor drone performance on a computer system on a console, all right? So having an understanding of how this computer and this software system is now giving commands to this piece of equipment that's flying around in the air and performing these duties is also a really, really valuable skill for them, OK?

Now, as part of the second and the third courses, the thing that you'll see here is this USI learning management system certification. USI is the Unmanned Safety Institute. This is an online self-paced curriculum that's offered at accredited universities. So schools that have aviation programs, drone programs, degree programs, a lot of times, the instructors are using platforms like this--

Audience: [coughs]

Tonie Smith: --because if they're-- excused. If you've got educators that don't have a background in the industry, well, how do you teach something about GNSS systems and sensors and payloads and data links? If that's not the instructor's background, the answer is going to be something like USI. After my students come in and they finish ground school, they have the opportunity to then receive, which the school covers, the enrollment cost for them to take this USI curriculum. At the end of the curriculum, which the safety level 1, it's five modules.

The curriculum is no joke. And I tried to tell my students then, they don't believe me, and then they start it and they come back and they're like, module 1 is forever long, right? And they're like, well, there's so much and so much information that they had no idea what they were getting themselves into. But I encouraged them to finish.

And the reason I encourage them to finish is because enterprise-level commercial operations, including Zipline, who they're doing like Walmart and Amazon deliveries and medical deliveries-- and these companies that internationally are operating in other countries are coming to USI, taking a look at the content and recognizing that this is what a lot of our non-trained pilots are missing. They want to have pilots and they want to have people integrated in their operations as well who have an understanding of not just the drone, but the systems that the drone is running on. That's where the USI curriculum is so invaluable.

So once the students finish this, it's an actual proctored exam that they take. Our district does have a proctored testing facility that once they complete it online, they'll do the practice exam, and then we schedule them to go to the testing facility. They're able to do that for free. The district does cover that cost.

But that USI certification that they receive then allows them to add themselves to the USI pilot database, meaning that those companies that are coming in and recruiting in different regions of the country have a database of people that have now been certified by USI, that they have the basic understanding and of those technical skills that are needed to operate their drone systems. So it's definitely a hiring advantage, all right?

So the test itself is not where the cost comes from. The cost comes from the license for the learning platform. And again, it depends on what the pathway is that you sign up for. It's about, I think, $1,200 a student for the program that we have, but they have other options as well. Yeah.

And they do have different curriculum bases. So for example, I teach ground school. I have my own ground school curriculum. But again, if you've never taken ground school, you're not pilots, right? You're like, well, how am I supposed to teach this if I don't understand it?

USI has a ground school curriculum that's very good, all right? So you could put your students into that and it's just teacher-guided and they have teacher resources. And it's going to be priced based on the program that you're using. Yes?

Audience: Do students pay for it?

Tonie Smith: No. Fully-funded, yeah.

Audience: Who funds it?

Tonie Smith: It's a combination of things, right? We use grants. We use grants in different programs. That's what my lovely resource teachers are doing all the time, making sure that we have our equipment, our certifications, our LMS, licensing, everything. Yeah, it's funded.

So for our students, the only thing that they will have to cover for themselves is the cost of the FAA exam, which is $175. And students that qualify, there is a program for students 23 and under. Name just slipped my mind, but if they qualify under that program, that they have financial assistance that for some of the students has covered the cost of that exam as well.

Audience: [static noise] outside of your salary. [static noise] How many drones do you have?

Tonie Smith: In my garage? Oh, we shouldn't tell those numbers, no? [laughs] So it's a very scalable program, is the thing. When I came into the program, there already was some equipment and some things from the previous instructor, but the previous instructor had come from education. But I was able to piece those things together.

Aside from my salary, the first thing would be, if you don't have an instructor who's familiar with the regulatory framework, you would want to pay for some type of licensing for ground school curriculum. Now, it doesn't have to be USI. There's several other programs out there.

If you send me an email, I can send you the links to some that I would recommend, which would range anywhere from $70 to $80 a student up to probably $1,500 a student, depending on what your requirements would be for your funding. Now, that's just for curriculum. Now, as far as equipment itself, once we get into the second program, you have to think about the fact that when students enroll, they think they're coming in to learn to fly.

And as you'll see in a bit, the content of ground school is very rigorous. It's intense. The attrition rate from ground school to the unmanned aircraft operations is huge.

I started out some semesters full room seating room-- or standing room only, and on the first break, two or three students don't come back, OK? And by the second week, I've lost half of the students because when they realize the academic requirement and the rigor that's involved, it's just not for them. And we'll talk about how we cheerlead and we try to keep them engaged. But the reality is, even from an industry standpoint and from an aviation standpoint, aviation is not for everybody, right?

So having those smaller groups, when we get into the second course, if I have a drone for every three students, that's plenty because part of what they're doing is working as teams anyway, and it's a learning process. It's not just the flight. It's the logs and the safety checks and the maintenance and them learning to work together as groups.

So you can start out with equipment that-- well, if you're starting out with just the basics or coding, these are available, I believe, still through the state of California. This is San Diego-based County. The state will pay for these for students. And these, they can use to learn block coding and do preprogrammed stuff.

I was telling they should pay me a commission on this. This is what a lot of the community programs are using for drone racing. So if you see schools or parks and rec centers that are doing drone racing programs, CoDrone EDU. So you can find out on their website, they've got information like that about that.

These are a more complex system. This is great for learning components and also learning the programming aspect of it. This unit, which is a drone soccer ball, which we'll talk about later on. They build these. They put them together piece by piece by piece. They tune them using an open source program that's free online. This is about $600 a unit.

Some of our enterprise-level drones, which they would want to use if they're going to use them for industry, start about $800 a drone. And our most expensive drones are probably like $20,000 a drone. But if you have one of those, and then a variety of other pieces you can acquire from year to year.

Students come in and they're always like, oh, they're afraid if they've never touched a drone. They think we're going to crash. None of my students have ever crashed. That's the purpose of the formal education. Because I start them off with pre-inspection and a process to make sure that they're handling these safely, meaning the equipment does not suffer wear and tear. You're not replacing it every year.

Before this needs to be replaced because of damage, it's going to be replaced because it's obsolete technology or there's something else that's out that's new. So you really can scale it and budget accordingly, yeah. Yes?

Audience: [static noise]

Tonie Smith: Oh, yeah, I certainly can. Thank you for that reminder. So the question was, of those that start the program, how many actually complete all three pieces and graduate per se from the program. Now for me, completing all three sections is not necessarily the requirement to successfully finish. There are exit points after each one of the classes.

Right out of ground school, it's an exit point for those that maybe they're already using drones. I've had people come in from CAL FIRE. I've had people come in that-- I had a guy who owned a roofing business for years. He'd been using a drone for his business. He just didn't realize that it was required for him to have a certification.

So a lot come in, they take the assistance, they get their certification. After ground school, they're out and they're taking that certification back into their workplace with them, which is fine. That's a success. Those that come in that also want to take the formalized flight training done that as well.

After they complete my flight training, because I still do have a good relationship with the company that does the hiring for the police departments, they're fine with my students coming out of the second course. And as long as I give them the OK, they'll hire them at a department to be a drone first response pilot. So I'm fine with them going out and using what they have. In fact, I would prefer it.

There are those that want a little bit more of a skill set in order to either continue their education or start their own business. If they're going to start their own business, they have to know how to manage data, and they have to know how to create deliverables. Those are the students, then, that are sticking around for the third course and learning the software and then creating their business plan along the way.

So I would say from ground school, the biggest drop rate is from ground school into the second course. That's easily 50%, if not more, that don't finish ground school. Of those that finish ground school, I'd say about 80% of them then roll themselves over into the second course. And those that take the second course, same. Probably 65% to 70% will follow through and complete the third course as well. Yeah, good question. Yes?

Audience: [question inaudible]

Tonie Smith: Yeah, absolutely.

Audience: [question inaudible] and then only later found out, oh, I--

Tonie Smith: I am supposed to be certified, right.

Audience: [question inaudible]

Tonie Smith: Yes.

Audience: The ground school that you mentioned, is that ground school just like any other pilot would complete or is it specific to drones?

Tonie Smith: OK, that's an excellent question. So the question was, the ground school that I keep mentioning, is that ground school just like any other pilot would complete or is it specific to drones? It is ground school. The content itself is based on general aviation. It's tailored to those that are looking to complete their Unmanned Aircraft Certification or their remote pilot certification.

So the FAA essentially took the framework of what they've been doing for years with crude aviation, and they just pared it down a bit. And they said, OK, well, if drones are going to share the same airspace with all of these other aircraft-- helicopters, planes, hot air balloons-- you need to know the same rules. So we're going to see an example of that later on.

There are some differences however, so there are no instructor certifications required for someone who wants to go in and take their Part 107 exam at the FAA testing center. They don't have to have my signature that says, yes, this person completed so many hours of instruction. They can just go in and register and take the test themselves.

So although we call it ground school, it doesn't have the exact same framework as general aviation. But that's where it comes from. Yeah, good question.

Audience: [question inaudible]

Tonie Smith: Programs. Yeah.

Audience: [question inaudible]

Tonie Smith: That's awesome, yeah.

Audience: [BEGINING OF QUESTION INAUDIBLE] like the mechanics. But we're sort of used to dealing with the government and establishing a program that meets FAA requirements and all the other requirements. So I was thinking, well, this might be something that would easily dovetail, but not just our aviation program. I mean, our electricians program, our welding program, our automotive program-- very, very difficult to find instructors for any CTE programs, right? So seeing as how this is-- I mean, the whole idea of drones, I think, 10 years old--

Tonie Smith: Yeah, barely. Nine years old. Yeah, 2016 is the framework. Yeah.

Audience: --and guest speaker, and then ends up becoming the instructor. Where do you find--

Tonie Smith: Send me a message. There are not. I'd say send me a message. And which school are you at?

Audience: --north.

Tonie Smith: North Valley Occupational. First of all, I think it's awesome that you have an aviation mechanics program. I wish we had one of those.

There is a shortage in all things aviation. And because there's a shortage in all things aviation, there is a shortage of instructors because those that can are still doing and the time that they have is limited. And as you know, the income in the educational field is not always competitive when it comes to working actually in industry itself, so it can be a challenge. But that's where reaching out and networking with those industry partners that you may have is helpful.

It was my job. I was supposed to be networking with schools throughout Southern California, and National City popped up. I had never heard of their drone program. I didn't know they had a drone program. But the reason was they didn't have any students that were graduating and getting their certification and applying to my jobs.

Because I had had such a challenge finding pilots, I was already in the process of developing curriculum because students-- well, they were going to other schools. They're like, yeah, we came from this community college, or we took this online course, and they were still coming to me not qualified. That bothered me. So it was a personal mission of mine to make sure that students that spent their time and energy and money to come into a program left with something that would make them employable.

If you send me a message, all right, I still work closely with people in different areas in industry. And because of that relationship, if you have a position that you're looking to hire an instructor, you may not get one full time. But if you have an opening or an opportunity and have an interest in developing a program that's going to fit the needs of your students, I can help you, point you in the direction of some organizations that have some resources.

Audience: [question inaudible] So my idea is to go to our assistant principal who works with the aviation program and say, hey, what about this?

Tonie Smith: Yeah, absolutely. And the other thing that these partnerships help, so USI as well. I'm a USI certified instructor also. So when they have companies either for temporary programs or a school-- like, we've got a school that was asking, how do we implement-- how do we get drones?

So we put together a proposal. And whatever the class schedule is, if it's twice a week, USI also has instructors that they'll send out in order to help a school deliver the curriculum and the program until, internally, you have somebody that can do that for you. Yeah, so good questions.

Do we have questions online about the three courses before we move in? No? Move forward. OK. Oh yeah, another question.

Audience: [question inaudible]

Tonie Smith: Sure.

Audience: [question inaudible]

Tonie Smith: Yes.

Audience: [question inaudible]

Tonie Smith: Yeah, so the first course, ground school, that's a prerequisite. No one is able to enroll in the other two courses because-- yes. And that was one of the things that I felt it was important to correct. The school, when I came in, they were allowing students to just enroll at whichever point they wanted to. But that's an issue for me because how are you teaching people to fly and they don't have a license to fly, right?

You're not helping them towards employment because any of those other skills are useless in the market if they don't have their industry certification. So the industry certification with ground school is prerequisite. They come in, they have to have their 107 before I will even allow them to enroll in any of the other courses.

Audience: [question inaudible]

Tonie Smith: Correct. Yep, absolutely. Yep, it can be a standalone. Yeah, excellent.

So now, going back to the question of, well, what is it that we're teaching? I feel like that process itself also helps the students develop some really critical skills, professional skills, soft skills like getting over things like testing anxiety. We talk about testing strategy.

Through this process of putting them through tests all the time, a lot of them, which I'm always so happy about, they do something that they hadn't done in their first 12 years of public schooling or 14 years of schooling. They go and they get screened to see if they have any learning disabilities. Or they go and they meet with our dark instructor to see if they can identify their unique-- their learning proficiency. Because without knowing that, it's very challenging for them to even know how to approach all of the content for ground school, all right?

So it's a great way for students to get over that wall. I'm just not good at learning. I can't do this. I can't learn this. It's too hard. It's too much. This is way harder than anything that I ever had in high school.

So we really try to focus on from the beginning, learn as you fail. I said at the beginning that I test my students every week. I do, and I tell them from the first week, these exams have no impact on your grade whatsoever. It's an exercise in learning how to learn and learning how to increase your understanding of a topic that you knew nothing about when you walked in on day one.

And once they can get that through their brains, then it's not as bad, right? They're like, OK, this doesn't mean I'm failing. It just means out of the 60 questions, I only got 20 right. Well, that's OK. I'll do better next time. And they come back to class and they participate.

Next test, they do do better. They get 30 out of 60, and they're like, wow, 50%. I'm improving. So they learn to focus on their process and their pathway of learning, instead of just on whether or not they are passing or failing.

Now, does everybody have a piece of paper or something to take notes on? It could be your phone. It can be a computer. We're going to give you an experience of what it's like to take one of these tests.

Now, the actual test itself, we said is 60 questions. We're not going to do 60 questions. We won't do that to you. Everybody online as well. Please don't put your answers in the chat. Keep them to yourself until we get to the end, and then we're going to see where we score.

Now, imagine that you've come into sUAS ground school, right? sUAS ground school, Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems. It's your first week. You thought you were going to come in and have a whole lot of fun, like video gaming and just fly a drone. And then I set you down in front of a computer, and I was like, OK, let's take a test.

All right. They are all multiple choice questions. We're going to take 10 multiple choice questions today. They're going to be on screen. I will read them out. When we get through these 10 questions, we'll talk about what you felt as you're going through these questions. And then hopefully, it'll help you identify with where your students are as they're going through these.

First question, the basic weather minimums for operating an sUAS up to the 400 foot AGL limit are? Is it A, 900-foot ceiling and a 3-mile visibility, B, 2000-foot ceiling and a 1-mile visibility, or C, clear of clouds and a 2-mile visibility? Pick one. Take your best guess.

Let's go on to question two. According to 14 CFR Part 107, an sUAS is an unmanned aircraft system weighing? Is it A, less than 55 pounds, B, 55 kilograms or less, or C, 55 pounds or less?

Practice exam 3 is going to take us to these lovely aeronautical charts that we see. And I know that might be hard to see from where you're at. It's kind of small, but again, we're taking our best guess.

The question would be refer to figure 71, area 1. The floor of the Class E airspace above Georgetown Airport, E36, is at? Is it A, the surface, B, 700 feet AGL, or C, 3823 feet MSL? What's going on there in area 1? [laughs] Now, you understand, right? Absolutely.

He said, can we do this in English? We will. The next seven questions are in English, I promise. ATC authorization is required to fly in which type of airspace? Is it A, class A, B, and G surface airspace? Is it B, special use and uncontrolled airspace? Or is it C, class B, C, and D controlled airspace.

Question 5. We're halfway through. Refer to figure 2. If an sUAS weighs 10 pounds, what approximate weight would the UAS structure be required to support during a 60-degree banked turn while maintaining altitude? Is it A, 10.15, pounds, B, 20 pounds, or C, 60 pounds? I know that involves a little math, so I'll give you a couple of extra seconds there if you're trying to figure that one out.

She's like, not necessary, right? Listen, in best guesses, I tell my students, the best guess is if you best guess 42 out of 60, you still pass. A win is a win. And literally, a win is a win in this case. [laughs]

Question 6. A person may not act as a crew member of an sUAS if alcoholic beverages have been consumed by that person within the preceding-- is it A, 8 hours, B, 12 hours, or C, 24 hours. Question 7. While operating an sUAS just south of a controlled airport with authorization, ATC notifies you to stay clear of the runway six final approach course. What action should you take to comply with this request?

Do we A, stay clear of areas to the west and north of your area of operation. Do we B, stay clear of areas to the east and north of your area of operation, or C, stay clear of areas to the West and South of your area of operation? And I see you all frantically drawing out our final approach patterns on your papers. So I'll give you a second. Not really. We'll go to the next question.

Question 8. What types of fog depend upon wind in order to exist? Is it A, radiation fog and ice fog? Is it B, steam fog and ground fog? Or is it C advection fog and upslope fog? Or is it D, like all my students say, who said there was more than one type of fog, right? The FAA, the aviation weather people that who.

Number 9. The accurate perception and understanding of all of the risk element factors and conditions is? Is it A, situational awareness? Is it B, judgment, C, aeronautical decision making? That one's a little closer to English, right? A little bit?

Absolutely. Hazardous attitudes occur to every pilot at some degree at some time. What are some of these hazardous attitudes? Is it, A, poor risk management and lack of stress management, B, anti-authority impulsivity, macho, resignation, and invulnerability, or C, poor situational awareness, snap judgments, and a lack of decision-making process? There is no all of the above, I know.

All right, that was the last one. So take a deep breath. So what was going through your head with those? I get quite a few of those. Yeah. She said that she's the student that left at break.

But now think about your student body. Think about those that are enrolling your demographics, your bilingual students. We have a very, very high percentage of our students that English is not their first language. We have a very high percentage of those students that end up finishing this course and do very well. And it gives them the confidence that they need, because, as I tell them at the beginning, even native English speakers are challenged by these kinds of questions.

The questions themselves, which come from the FAA testing database-- I didn't make these up, so don't be mad at me, OK? These questions are worded specifically to determine how well a student is able to take a limited amount of information, use what they know about regulations, about operational limitations, and about safety, and make the choice of one of these as the best answer.

Now, do you want to know how you did? There's your answer key. Number 1 was A. Number 2 was A. Number 3 was C, 4 was C. 5 was B. 6 was A. 7 was A. 8 was C, 9 was A. And number 10 was B.

You got three. Who got more than three? Anyone got more than three? How many did you get? You got six. Wow, she's at 50% What'd you get? You got six. You got five. That's impressive. Anyone get more than six? You got two? That's all right. Two? Online, do we have anybody that got more than six correct? I can see that, but let's see.

And can I tell you that I tell them the same thing. If you get 50% of these questions right on your first test, good for you. You deserve round of applause, because how much of this information have we studied at this point? Zero, right? And that's the point. There's so much out there that we don't know. You have to be comfortable with the learning process. And you have to understand what you don't know in order to be in a mindset to learn and to grow.

Students that are extremely uncomfortable with not knowing something, that's a challenge in and of itself. Yes.

Audience: So you guys do CTE orientation specifically for this?

Tonie Smith: For in pre-enrolled students? OK, so the question was, do we do a CTE orientation specifically for this? We do not. That would be great. I do orientation. The first week of the course is orientation before we get into it, because I understand coming into this that when people sign up for this class, it's not what they think they're signing up for.

Audience: [question inaudible]

Tonie Smith: Yep.

Audience: The orientation should have the course structure.

Tonie Smith: It should have. Unfortunately, one of the other challenges I have is that even our administration and our registrar staff, because we've got multiple-- we've got five different adult school sites, they can sign up for any of the CTE courses at any of the sites. Most of the staff have no idea what my class my course is about either.

And so when they come in, first thing they get, we get a syllabus and we talk about the possibilities, we talk about the industry. I explain the course structure. We go through all of that to warm them up to, is this what you signed up for? Are you really looking to get an industry certification? These are the reasons why. And this is why it's going to be hard.