PUPILS have ditched their clipboards and pencils for state of the art technology.

Drones were used to record land surrounding York and Ryedale as part of a high tech Malton School field trip.

Students were able to record a bird’s eye view of residential areas as part of a project to look at how landscapes change when moving from rural to city centre locations.

The school worked with drone provider DJI and James Hannam, owner of digital MakerLabs, who teaches students and staff how to make better use of Apple technology, to record views of Kitchener Street, Bell Farm Avenue, Anthea Driver and Earswick Chase, in New Earswick.

Mr Hannam said: “The drone was used to help students get a better understanding of the surrounding environment, and gathered extra data to be used back in the classroom afterwards.

“Essentially staff and students were able to share ideas and resources in the field, spend less time back at school collating (and therefore more time looking at the evidence and learning), and more time focusing on the learning.

“The footage from the iPads and the drones can then be used to create video explanation tutorials, and more in depth studies into the areas the students visited.”

Tautvydas Juskauskas, DJI’s public business development manager in Europe, said: “In the case of the Malton School’s project, drones will provide a clear and exciting opportunity to enrich the field trip by allowing students to survey the areas they visit and see those places from an angle that they haven’t seen.

“This will essentially allow students to take part in ‘real life’ surveying - as if they would as land or city surveyors.

“The students will later be challenged to create a mini video of their day when they return to the classroom.”