In Ankara, Turkey, an announcement was made for the “Imagine, Design and Code Flying Vehicles” competition for students at Doku Schools. In this competition, it was aimed that students do interdisciplinary studies with flying vehicles, gain awareness and experience a more effective learning process with STEM applications. The theme of the competition was for students to design flying vehicles with recycled materials, to learn the working principle of the aircraft by researching, and to design games with coding related to it. The competition started on March 30 and continued until April 27. Students who made their preparations during this process sent their projects to their e-mail account and participated in the competition. 58 female and 46 male students participated. The age of the participants in this competition was between 9 and 14 years old.

Imagine, design and code flying vehicles consisted of three stages. The first step was to research the Aircraft and come up with a creative name for the flying vehicle that she/he would build herself. The second stage was to design his dream flying vehicle using recycled materials. The third was to develop a game using coding tools. We have prepared a competition where students can both enjoy and learn while having fun. We announced our competition on various platforms such as social media and posters. At the end of the activity, students’ opinions were taken and they stated that they could learn more easily with STEM applications.

While researching the plane they were preparing in the first phase, they found interesting information. They discovered that the principle of flight of airplanes is thanks to their wings. Lightning strikes airplanes. Thanks to the materials in the aircraft, lightning is not felt. They learned that the tires of the planes are very strong and can carry about 38 tons. Students said that they encountered interesting information and enjoyed researching it. The names they gave to their flying vehicles in this process were also very interesting.

They design a flying vehicle that goes through the second stage transformation process. They designed different flying vehicles such as airplanes and drones from toilet paper rolls, pens, materials such as ping pong balls, plastic covers, and CDs. They stated that they enjoyed the process of creating prototypes.

The third stage was the coding stage. They designed creative games using block-based coding tools such as Scratch, Arcade, and Kodugame. They stated that they had some difficulty at this stage.

In the April 29 elections, the finalists of the competition have been announced.

In our project, we aimed to enable the child in our school to encounter STEM. He observed that learning is easier and permanent with STEM teaching. Participating belong to different age groups. They were many for what could be designed for students, for what could be designed for students. It benefits from being brought together and used from the competition. Every student involved and their project were so happy and so happy, they approve of its dissemination.