The St. James Day School Drone Leadership Team shared some knowledge about flying drones with a few Domtar employees Tuesday in the school's gym.
Domtar recently purchased the DJI Mavic Drones the students have been using, so the employees stopped by for some pointers.
"They use the drones we just purchased and they're going to teach us a few tricks," said Doug Teale, Domtar sustainability manager.
Teale said they use drones for a variety of reasons, including tree harvesting, evaluating possible land acquisitions and to see how regenerated forests are doing.
"It's a big time saver. If a forester is out reconning a tract of timber, instead of walking it, we can fly a drone and see it in 10 or 15 minutes," Teale said.
Domtar has been working with the Drone Leadership Team since it was formed last year.
The team is a extracurricular activity available at St. James and the students on it worked hard, after school on Fridays and on the weekends, to be a part of it.
"We've trained them how to teach other students about drones," said Shannon Kirkland, director of educational technology at St. James. "Students learn best from themselves."
Students on the team don't start out flying the best drones. They start small and work their way up.
"We had eight levels last year," Kirkland said. "We had only a few kids get that far."
Dawson Palmer, a seventh-grader at St. James, is the general manager of the Drone Leadership Team.
"I love it," he said.