Upfront EDUCATION
At Paly football opener, students experiment with ‘drone journalism’ Camera launched by teens captures aerial footage of U.S. flag unfurling with the stars and stripes on the football field, waiting to signal his colleagues to launch the drone at just the right moment. With only 10 minutes of battery life, it couldn’t be set aloft too soon. After one false start — which required Mei to hurriedly recharge the drone batteries from an outlet in the baseball dugout — they launched the drone straight up over the empty baseball field, its camera angled toward the football stadium. The crew on the baseball field kept the drone in view at all times. From the football field, Schwartz said, he could see the drone, but just barely. “I was kind of looking for it so I saw it, but no one would have noticed it if they hadn’t been looking for it,” he said. When Schwartz gave a second signal, Hinstorff eased the drone back down to the baseball field and ran it back to the classroom. “We didn’t know we got the perfect shot until we brought it down and came back to the Voice room, plugged it into the computer and
Palo Alto High School journalists Christopher Hinstorff, left, Ed Mei, Jared Schwartz and Max Bernstein display a drone they launched last Friday to capture aerial video footage of the unfurling of the American flag on the school’s football field. looked at it,” he said. “And then we saw we got the flag.” Even if it was slightly wobbly. Kandell said he enjoys “bringing Silicon Valley into my classroom, getting my students to push the envelope with new technology. “I think a lot of students realize it’s a piece of the future they can connect with here,” he said. “Their future careers could be being built right now. “There was a lot of skepticism — people said, ‘We’re going to buy that? And do what?’ — even until last weekend. But after that (flag) shot, a lot of people said: ‘Oh, I see
Proposed Stanford Dish trail parking
PARKING
Page 8ÊUÊ-i«Ìi LiÀÊÓä]ÊÓä£ÎÊUÊ*> Ê Ì Ê7ii ÞÊUÊÜÜÜ°*> Ì " i°V
ou
Rd
Stanford Dish Trail
ill
Rd
Sta nfo rd
Av e
tts
ni
pe
ro
Se
rra
Bl
vd
New trail connection
d
Foothill Expy lR Mil
Old Page
>«ÊLÞÊ- > Ê ÀiÞ
A
rC
Ju
by Jay Thorwaldson Clara County that the university provide a trails connection to the foothills from the flatlands. It was part of the county’s approval of a General Use Permit in 2000 that allowed Stanford to add about 3 million square feet of academic and housing construction on its sprawling campus. But the main southern trail winds along Page Mill Road and cuts over a horse pasture area west of Deer Creek Road and south of Page Mill — not easily accessible to people coming from Palo Alto and Stanford. A northern trail connection was shelved after the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors twice declined a major Stanford offer to pay for significant changes to Alpine Road to accommodate a paved trail along the road rather than across Stanford land. The four-mile Dish has long been a popular — some would say too popular — trail for those seeking an open-space running and walking loop. In the late 1990s Stanford erected a chainlink fence around the hill between
Pe t e
New paths leading to Dish would prompt removal of some parking along Stanford Avenue a mess,” resident Craig Mallery said, adding that removing only 33 spaces “in a situation already in crisis” won’t be much help. Another speaker said splitting the parking may even make the situation worse, as people look unsuccessfully for a space before heading for Coyote Hill. “I understand about people not wanting to walk to their walk,” resident James Sweeney commented dryly on the irony. He received applause from the crowd of about 70 people when he suggested that parking be provided at a northerly gate to the Dish hill, near Gerona Road, to relieve pressure on the Stanford Avenue gate. Some asked that parking be removed entirely from Stanford Avenue due to hazards caused by people making U-turns on Stanford Avenue in their search for a parking space and sometimes coming to a full halt while waiting for someone to pull out of a space. Stanford’s trails project stems from a requirement by Santa
Nixon Elementary
27 parking spaces (currently 60)
‘Stanford Dish’ parking plan is better but still has problems, residents say plan to add trails that would connect to the famed “Stanford Dish” hill is much improved since last spring, but there are still serious problems with roadside parking along Stanford Avenue, residents told Stanford University officials Sept. 12. Under the proposal, expanded bike/pedestrian paths would be built along Junipero Serra Boulevard (which borders the Dish hill), Stanford Avenue and El Camino Real. But to build the Stanford Avenue segment of the trail, 33 of the existing 60 parking spaces along the road would be relocated about a half-mile south to Coyote Hill Road, which intersects Page Mill. Twenty-seven parking spaces would remain. A number of residents at the Nixon Elementary School meeting commended Stanford and its planning consultants for making substantial improvements to an initial plan that had been outlined at a meeting last May and had elicited strong criticism. “Everyone knows parking is
it now. That was worth it.’” What’s next for the drones? Students have pondered various possibilities, Kandell said. “You could fly it up and interview somebody sticking their head out of the second floor of the Tower Building, if you had them on the phone, so we’ve toyed with ideas like that. “Or for a story about the tower itself — you could get images of it people have not had before. “This has helped students imagine things in a new way.” N Staff Writer Chris Kenrick can be emailed at ckenrick@ paweekly.com.
eM
dell said: “My students found the idea very compelling — it had a lot of instant ‘boy appeal.’” Class members researched the military and non-military history of drones, including safety, privacy and legal concerns, presenting their findings at a spring student journalism conference in San Francisco and again over the summer to students participating in a journalism camp at Stanford, where Kandell was a faculty member. Students experimented with the drone over Lake Lagunita, in an empty theater at Paly and in some outdoor spaces on campus. But the drones — a second one was added last spring (a $700 Phantom that has a range of 1,000 feet) — “were often in disrepair so we haven’t always been able to achieve the plans we’ve come up with,” Kandell said. Last Friday night, things worked out. Paly Voice staffers Christopher Hinstorff, Max Bernstein and Ed Mei gathered on the baseball field with the Phantom drone. A fourth student journalist, Jared Schwartz, stationed himself
Pa g
W
hen students at Palo Alto High School unfurled a huge, sky-facing American flag on the field before last Friday’s football game, a drone — operated by student journalists at a baseball field nearby — hovered above. The 76-second “video exclusive” aerial view of the flag unfurling, captured by the drone’s camera and posted on the student website Paly Voice, was a first, as local students explore the new frontier of “drone journalism.” Paly obtained its first batteryoperated, remote-control drone, resembling a large four-winged insect spanning 18 inches, about a year ago. Journalism teacher Paul Kandell happened to notice it in an airport Brookstone store and was struck by the $300 price, which, he thought, “was within striking distance for a student publication.” He’d read a bit about emerging non-military uses of drones and wanted to explore the technology with his students. When he introduced the drone to his Paly journalism class, Kan-
À ÃÊ i À V
by Chris Kenrick
Proposed 33 parking spaces Co yo
te H ill Rd
A new expanded bike/pedestrian path, connecting the entrance to the Dish trail to El Camino Real via Junipero Serra Boulevard and Stanford Avenue, calls for removing 33 parking spaces from Stanford Avenue and providing parking on Coyote Hill Road. Page Mill Road to the south and Alpine Road to the north and restricted access to daytime hours through guarded gates. The university cited erosion concerns from use of unpaved trails and created the wide paved trail, used mostly by walkers and joggers. Stanford representative Larry Horton said at the end of the Sept. 12 session that a transcript of the comments will be made,
as has been done for the meeting last May, and that Stanford will analyze every comment before submitting an application to Santa Clara County. The county will then hold public hearings. He said people can make additional comments by emailing communityrelations@Stanford. edu. N Editor Emeritus Jay Thorwaldson can be emailed at jaythor@well.com.