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Technological advances, artificial intelligence innovations, and widespread computing have all combined to necessitate a new generation of knowledge workers where data becomes a ubiquitous part of decision making (Sutton, 2006). Teaching today's students through the application of this "new" knowledge to long-established fields represents a key opportunity for innovation, improvement, and progress (Vasisht, et al., 2017). The authors present here their experience, and the accompanying materials developed, while working with high school students in a setting that intentionally combined "new" knowledge--derived from high-tech sensors and aerial imagery captured by a drone--with the longstanding practices and traditions of irrigation in agriculture. In this lesson, they teamed up with a local teacher and several students attending a rural high school to develop materials related to aerial imagery collected from an agricultural drone and an associated design challenge aimed at reducing water waste in irrigation practices. To introduce students to data and help them understand the imagery provided by drones in agricultural applications, the authors introduced them to the sensors involved, the image acquisition process, the data processing performed, and visualization techniques prior to them flying the drone. Although, like many of the existing drone software packages, the software utilized by the students in this scenario (FieldAgent) performed many data-processing and visualization steps automatically, they felt it was important to help students understand both the technology involved and the imaging pipeline prior to interpreting the data and utilizing their findings to inform their design decision making while attempting to devise solutions to reduce water waste in irrigation. They believe this emphasis on both data acquisition and application is important for influencing the students' designing and introduction to data-driven decision making.

This article describes a lesson in which students will utilize ideation and engineering design to innovate a solution to a design problem using common household products.

In order to maintain the United States' global competitiveness and create new and innovative solutions to solve global challenges, more and diverse numbers of STEM graduates need to be attracted and retained in technical disciplines (Committee on Prospering in the Global Economy of the 21st Century: An Agenda for American Science and Technology, 2007). According to the U.S. Department of Education (2015), current national statistics reveal that there continues to be a great shortage of math and science teachers in comparison to the number of students who will actually opt for STEM-related careers. As such, solutions to global challenges will require a new scientific workforce equipped with a skill set of new technology and interdisciplinary thinking, in a culture that is increasingly embracing STEM concepts as a vehicle to address these challenges. The purpose of this article is to contribute to the ongoing discussions among educators, employers, parents, and all those concerned, to seek the goal of interdisciplinary STEM instruction.

Computational thinking, programming, coding, and analytical thinking are high-demand skills in today's educational and occupational arenas (Wing, 2006 & 2014). In addition to these skills, students need the ability to think creatively, work collaboratively, and develop design solutions to complex problems to succeed in school and a globally-connected society (Dym, et al., 2005; Grubbs & Strimel, 2015). In this article, the authors propose that a useful tool for integrating, teaching, and improving computational thinking, programming, coding, and analytical thinking skills in students resides in quadcopters. A quadcopter, also known as a "drone," unmanned aerial system (UAS), or unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), is a vehicle lifted by four vertically oriented propellers or rotors. Traditionally, a quadcopter consists of a frame, four electrical motors, four propellers, an electronic chip for flight controlling, a power module, a battery, and a controller. The design, use, and integration of quadcopters can introduce and assist students in a wide variety of topics from science, dynamics, and technology to electronics, engineering design, mathematics, programming, and computational thinking. Herein, the authors offer one example of a lesson plan combining engineering design, quadcopters, and computational thinking practices. The lesson overview and plan are included. The lesson plan, accompanying idea, and the resources listed are intended to be examples of potential ways quadcopters and computational thinking could be integrated into current classrooms. Teachers are encouraged to continue identifying and exploring new ways of combining engineering design and computational thinking practices through quadcopters and other technological developments.

The article focuses on the engineering design and coding through unmanned aerial vehicles quadcopters. It includes information on the significance of computational programming, coding, and analytical thinking in engineering education and occupations. It also offers information on the use of coding application Tynker for iPad for designing autonomous flight vehicles.