Making STEM Education Fun with Model Aircraft

July 29, 2025

Centered around model airplanes, one visionary is making STEM education a hands-on activity that’s so much fun whereby kids treat it as recreational.

Lee Goldberg

Related To:

Electronic Design

What you’ll learn:

Flite Test takes a “fun-forward” approach to STEM education.
The kits, which can be assembled with little more than a hot glue gun, packing tape, and a straightedge ruler, are paired with lesson plans that use a hands-on approach to introducing scientific thinking, engineering practices, and problem-solving skills.
Flite Test also runs a festival where kids as young as six years old, who are building their first models, get to work alongside seasoned aerospace engineers who are putting the final touches on their latest designs.

What if we could make STEM education a hands-on activity that was so much fun that kids would treat it as a recreational activity? In fact, there’s already at least one such “fun-forward” STEM curriculum equipping thousands of youngsters with the knowledge and skills they’ll need to navigate our tech-driven economy — and live more interesting lives.

The curriculum is a work in progress at Flite Test, a manufacturer of model airplanes. It has pioneered a growing movement to make STEM education a fun, affordable, and effective way to teach important life skills.

Part of the company’s extensive U.S.-made product line is focused on a series of introductory airplane kits that are fun to fly and easy to build and repair. They’re paired with STEM lesson plans that provide hands-on activities which take a “fun-forward” approach to introducing kids to science, technology, critical thinking, creativity, and problem solving.

The video below offers a sampler of the fruits of Flite Test’s efforts at Flite Fest, sort of a Maker Faire for model airplane nerds that attracts thousands of DIY aviation enthusiasts to a small airstrip in rural Ohio.

In the spirit of the festival’s slogan “Build, Fly, Crash, Repeat,” its participants experiment with unusual materials and designs, push the limits of their own creativity, and share their knowledge with others. The video is a sampler of the activities to be covered in an upcoming feature on Electronic Design.

About the Author

Lee Goldberg | Contributing Editor

Lee Goldberg is a self-identified “Recovering Engineer,” Maker/Hacker, Green-Tech Maven, Aviator, Gadfly, and Geek Dad. He spent the first 18 years of his career helping design microprocessors, embedded systems, renewable energy applications, and the occasional interplanetary spacecraft. After trading his ‘scope and soldering iron for a keyboard and a second career as a tech journalist, he’s spent the next two decades at several print and online engineering publications.

Lee’s current focus is power electronics, especially the technologies involved with energy efficiency, energy management, and renewable energy. This dovetails with his coverage of sustainable technologies and various environmental and social issues within the engineering community that he began in 1996. Lee also covers 3D printers, open-source hardware, and other Maker/Hacker technologies.

Lee holds a BSEE in Electrical Engineering from Thomas Edison College, and participated in a colloquium on technology, society, and the environment at Goddard College’s Institute for Social Ecology. His book, “Green Electronics/Green Bottom Line - A Commonsense Guide To Environmentally Responsible Engineering and Management,” was published by Newnes Press.

Lee, his wife Catherine, and his daughter Anwyn currently reside in the outskirts of Princeton N.J., where they masquerade as a typical suburban family.

Lee also writes the regular PowerBites series.