The Design and Practice of an Experimental Teaching Case for UAV-Based Field-Data Acquisition in Outdoor Ecological Education

Outdoor ecological practice is essential for cultivating ecological literacy; however, there is currently a relative lack of comprehensive outdoor practical teaching case designs for class-based teaching. This study describes the design of an experimental teaching case for ecological education involving UAV-based field data collection. For the scheme, we selected the Xinhui Tangerine Peel Germplasm Resources Conservation Center in Jiangmen City, Guangdong Province as the study area, utilizing the DJI Phantom 4 RTK drone, which serves as the equipment for experimental teaching. The experiment is structured into three phases: indoor preparation, field execution, and data processing. Students from four groups collaboratively conducted aerial surveys across 24 partitioned plots, with flight altitudes stratified between groups to ensure safety and data integrity. (1) In the indoor preparation phase, appropriate single-flight operational units were defined. QGIS software (version 3.26.2) was employed for zonal mission planning, and suitable flight altitudes were estimated using contour data. (2) Field experiment phase. This involved conducting a comprehensive survey of the on-site environment, selecting suitable takeoff and landing points, dividing students into teams to carry out UAV-image-acquisition tasks, and assigning different altitudes for flight routes among the teams. (3) After the fieldwork, students processed imagery using Agisoft Metashape (version 2.0.1) to generate orthomosaics and digital surface models, and engaged in ecological interpretation of the results. The experimental design ensured orderly execution, complete data coverage, and active student participation. The results indicate the approach effectively enhanced students’ UAV operational skills, outdoor problem-solving abilities, and teamwork capabilities, while deepening their ecological understanding through real-world inquiry. This case provides a replicable model for integrating UAV technology into ecological education, contributing to the transformation of ecological awareness into actionable practice.