Drone Lab
Flying a drone is the easy part to find. Building one is not: a real build costs a few hundred dollars, and a wrong part means a drone that will not lift, flips on takeoff, or cooks its battery. Drone Lab is the workbench without the bill. Students choose a frame, motors, a flight controller, a battery and props, put them together the way builders do, and test the drone. The weight, the thrust and the battery decide what happens.
Using this with a class? Make a free class and add your students yourself: each gets a username and password, with no email or Google account needed. Or give them one join code. Using Google Classroom? Post the link there; with a free class, the link also puts each student in your class, so you see their work. mytekDev is also available from the Google Workspace Marketplace, so your school's Google admin can install it for everyone.A first lesson: One period: build a tiny whoop for the first customer, check the motors with the props off, put a prop on the wrong motor and watch it flip, fix it and hover, then read the weight, thrust to weight and hover time. A second period: a 5 inch build, the thrust stand and the battery chart.
Set up a free class Share to Google ClassroomWhat a student actually does
A customer wants something: a tiny drone a class can watch hover, a first drone light enough that it does not have to be registered, a freestyle drone on a budget, a 300 gram package carried across a parking lot. The student takes the job and builds for it. On a cutting mat seen from above, they pick a frame, click motors onto its arms, add the flight controller board, a camera and a battery, each from cards that give what a hobby shop gives: size, weight, price, what it fits. A part that does not fit is grayed out and says why.
Then they do what builders do before a first flight. With the props off, they spin each motor and watch which way it turns. Two of the four turn the wrong way for their corner, and swapping two of a motor's three wires reverses it. Only then do the props go on, and each prop is made for one direction. Put a clockwise prop on a motor that spins the other way and the test flight flips over the moment it lifts, and names the motor. A drone that is too heavy stays on the pad. One with the battery too far back lifts on one side. One whose battery cannot give the current sags and gets hot.
When it flies, the strip under the bench reads what a builder reads: the weight, the thrust to weight, the hover throttle, the hover time and the cost, each beside what the customer asked for. The first tiny whoop weighs 29.1 g, lifts 2.7 times its weight and hovers 3 minutes 10 seconds. The thrust stand tests one motor and prop at each throttle. A chart shows the same drone with every battery that fits. There are eight jobs, from a 65 mm whoop to a six-motor camera drone, and a repair shelf of six customer drones with one thing wrong each. A Sheet collects the parts, the numbers and questions for each level, and Setup lets a teacher choose the jobs and print an answer key. Signed in, a saved design can be flown in the Drone Simulator.
After a test flight, the same drone is worked out with every battery that fits it. A bigger pack holds more energy, but the drone has to lift it, so each extra watt hour buys a little less time. The 6S 1800 holds 64 percent more than the 6S 1100 and hovers about a third longer.
What they are learning while they work
Nothing here is presented as a lesson. This is what the activity is made of.
| What the student does | What it is |
|---|---|
| Adds a bigger battery and watches the weight go up, the thrust to weight go down and the hover time go up, but not by as much | A tradeoff. Every part helps one number and hurts another. A bigger battery holds more energy and has to be lifted. The battery chart shows where the extra weight stops paying. |
| Reads thrust to weight against what the customer asked for | Forces and mass. Under 1 to 1 the drone cannot leave the ground. At exactly 1 it hovers at full throttle with nothing left. About 2 is the least for any drone, and a freestyle drone runs 5 or more. |
| Spins each motor with the props off and swaps two wires on the ones turning the wrong way | Reaction torque. A spinning prop twists the drone the other way. Two motors turn clockwise and two counterclockwise so the twists cancel, and the flight controller turns the drone by speeding one pair up. |
| Runs one motor on the thrust stand from low throttle to full | Efficiency. The stand gives grams of thrust and watts of power at each throttle. Grams per watt are best at low throttle and fall as the motor is pushed harder. |
| Slides the battery until the yellow and black mark sits over the middle | Center of mass. When the weight sits off center, the motors on the heavy side carry more than their share. The hover test shows each motor's throttle, so the uneven load can be read. |
| Checks what the motors pull against what the battery and the speed controllers are rated for | Current and ratings. A battery's C rating times its capacity is the most current it is rated to give. Ask for much more and it sags and heats. The same goes for a speed controller rated below what its motor draws. |
| Builds for a job with a budget, tests, changes one part and tests again | Criteria, constraints and iteration. The job card is the criteria and the budget is a constraint. The drone is tested against both, and the test says what to change. |
How to tell whether it landed
Ask, and let them show you. A student who has understood it can answer these without help.
- Your drone's thrust to weight is 2.7 to 1. What does that number mean, and what happens below 1?
- Why did a bigger battery not add as much hover time as it added energy?
- Why do builders check the motors with the props off?
- It flipped the moment it took off. What are two things you would check?
- The weight on the strip is more than the part cards add up to. Where does the rest come from?
- The hover time says 6:57 but the flying line says 3 to 5 minutes. Why is flying shorter?
Use it in your subject
Not a technology class? Then the app is how students show what they learned in your unit. More projects for every subject.
Middle school engineering
MS-ETS1-1 to MS-ETS1-4. The job card is the criteria and constraints, two builds are compared against it, test data says what to change, and the app is the model that generates data for iterative testing and modification.
Middle school physical science
MS-PS2-2 for how the change in an object's motion depends on the sum of the forces on it and its mass: thrust against weight, one direction, one change at a time, inside the standard's boundary.
High school
HS-ETS1-2 and HS-ETS1-3 for breaking a design into smaller problems and weighing tradeoffs, HS-ETS1-4 for using a computer simulation on a problem with many criteria, HS-PS2-1 for the climb as net force over mass, and HS-PS3-3 for a device that converts energy, read as grams of thrust per watt.
Drone and UAS courses
State drone courses are mostly about rules and flying. Drone Lab covers the part they have little room for: choosing parts that fit together, motor order and spin, current ratings, and battery safety. A CTE course level asks those questions on the sheet and gives no hints on the repair shelf. It is a supplement to a course, not test preparation for the FAA exam.
Practical notes
- AgesGrades 6 to 12. A middle school level uses plainer words ("lifts its weight 2.7 times"), a high school level adds questions on Newton's second law and efficiency, and a CTE course level asks about motor order, current and battery safety.
- TimeOne period for the first whoop, the motor check, a flip and a hover. A second for a 5 inch build, the thrust stand and the battery chart. The jobs and the repair shelf fill a week.
- EquipmentA computer or Chromebook with a modern browser. Nothing to install, and no drone needed.
- CostFree. The app has no paid tier.
- PrepAbout fifteen minutes: build the first whoop yourself, put one prop on the wrong motor to see the flip, fix it and hover, then open Setup and print the answer key.
- In a groupOpen Setup in the app's header: the level, which jobs and repairs are on the board, one job for the whole class, budgets on or off, and the sheet's questions.
For co-ops, microschools, and classrooms
Set it up once in Setup and hand the project out as the starter; the setup travels with it. Every number is worked out from the parts, so two students with the same build read the same weight and hover time, and a class can compare builds for the same job. The answer key prints one passing build for every job and what is wrong with every repair. The Sheet asks questions written for each level, and Hand in needs every one answered.
Common questions
Is it free?
Yes. Drone Lab has no paid tier, and it can be tried right on this page without an account.
Are the parts real products?
They are typical parts, named by size and spec the way builders name them (a 2207 1950KV motor, a 6S 1100 mAh battery), not any brand. The prices are typical too.
How real are the numbers?
The motor is a standard first-order model and the props use published thrust and power figures, checked against a published thrust stand table for a 5 inch motor and prop: the model is within about ten percent at every throttle. Hover time is harder. A hovering drone uses more than a thrust stand shows, and that extra is fitted to the hover times makers list for real drones, not measured. Read hover times as close, not exact. The weight includes the wires, screws and mounts the part cards leave out.
What does it leave out?
Forward flight, wind, and the flight controller's tuning. The test is a hover in still air. Flying around uses much more power, which is why the strip gives a shorter flying time beside the hover time. Heat is a simple rule: a motor or speed controller asked for well over its rating overheats on the first climb, where real parts heat up over many seconds.
Does it teach the rules for flying a real drone?
Only where a build runs into them. One job is a drone light enough that a recreational flyer in the United States does not have to register it: 0.55 pounds, about 249 grams, at takeoff with everything on board. How it works says that flying for a customer or for pay needs an FAA Part 107 certificate, to keep the drone where you can see it, and never to fly over people. It is not preparation for the FAA exam.
Can a student fly what they built?
Inside Drone Lab the test is a hover. A student who is signed in and saves a design can open the Drone Simulator, choose Customize Drone, and fly that design there: its thrust, weight, balance and battery time come from the build.
Still have a question? Ask us, and a person will write back.
Where to go next
Start with Drone Lab
Trying it costs nothing and takes about five minutes. An account is what makes the work last.
Drone Lab is one of the making apps on the platform. The bench and the test flight are drawn in code and every number comes from the parts on the bench, so the same build reads the same on a fast laptop and a slow Chromebook, and the app's test suite checks that every job can be won.
Page last reviewed November 2026.
Google, Google Classroom and Chromebook are trademarks of Google LLC.