Drone Infinity Kit® and Microsoft FarmBeats for Students both took home 2026 Educators Pick Best of STEM honors, in two categories and two grade bands.
A high schooler pulls a quadcopter off the bench, swaps in two more arms, reloads the flight parameters, and sends it back up as a hexacopter to find out whether the extra motors are worth the extra weight. That is the kind of class period that just won an award.
Pitsco Education won two 2026 Educators Pick Best of STEM Awards. Drone Infinity Kit® took Best of STEM: Hands-On Learning for High School. Microsoft FarmBeats for Students took the Educators Pick Best of AI award for Middle School and High School.
Every judge in the program is a credentialed K-12 STEM educator. The people deciding which tools deserve recognition are the same people running fourth period. Two wins in one year from that group tells us we are building the right things.
Why Teachers Picked Drone Infinity Kit® for Best of STEM
Drone Infinity Kit® won Best of STEM: Hands-On Learning for High School. Your students build the drone before they fly it, then rebuild it as something else and fly that too.
Drone Infinity starts as a box of parts: carbon fiber frame, motors, professional-grade flight hardware. Students assemble a quadcopter and fly it and then rebuild the same kit as a hexacopter and fly that. They set flight parameters in iNav and compare load capacity, structural performance, and flight dynamics across both builds. By the end of the unit, they can tell you which configuration they would choose for a given mission and show you the data behind the call.
Built for Grades 8 through 12, this drone and aerospace product is Section 889 compliant and CTSO approved, so it clears the procurement questions your CTE program is going to ask before anyone has to ask them.
Why Teachers Picked Microsoft FarmBeats for Students for Best of AI
Microsoft FarmBeats for Students won Educators Pick Best of AI for Middle and High School. Your students train the model on soil data they collected themselves.
Students wire a soil moisture sensor to a BBC micro:bit, put it in real soil, and collect real readings in real time. Then, they use their own data to make irrigation and crop health calls they can defend and see how AI is changing modern agriculture along the way. It connects data science, artificial intelligence, and sustainable agriculture in one build, aligned to NGSS, AFNR, and CSTA standards.
It works anywhere from Grades 5 through 12 for computer science and coding. FarmBeats is backed by Microsoft and FFA, and it runs using no ongoing software fees and no specialized setup, so you can start with what is in the box.
Explore Microsoft FarmBeats for Students
Who Judges the Educators Pick Best of STEM Awards?
These awards were decided by classroom teachers, not an industry panel. Every judge in the Educators Pick program is a credentialed K-12 STEM educator, which makes two wins in one year the review we care about most.
Pitsco has spent more than 50 years putting tools in students’ hands. What makes these two wins land is who handed them over. The educators who picked Drone Infinity and Microsoft FarmBeats for Students are the same educators who unbox these kits, watch what happens at the table, and decide the results are worth telling a colleague about. That has always been the review we care about most.
Thank you to the Educators Pick Best of STEM program and to every teacher who took the time to judge.
Ready to bring award-winning STEM tools into your classroom? Connect with a Pitsco Education Advisor.
Book a meeting with an advisor
Interested in reading more about our past awards? Then check out Pitsco's 2025 Tech & Learning Best of awards.
FAQ's
➤ What are the Educators Pick Best of STEM Awards?
The Educators Pick Best of STEM Awards recognize K-12 STEM products chosen by classroom teachers. Every judge is a credentialed K-12 STEM educator who evaluates products for real classroom use. Pitsco won two 2026 awards: Best of STEM Hands-On Learning for High School, and Best of AI for Middle and High School.
➤ What did the Drone Infinity Kit win?
Drone Infinity Kit won Best of STEM: Hands-On Learning for High School in the 2026 Educators Pick awards. Students build a quadcopter, fly it, then rebuild the same kit as a hexacopter and compare load capacity, structural performance, and flight dynamics across both configurations.
➤ What grade levels is the Drone Infinity Kit for?
Drone Infinity Kit is built for grades 8 through 12. The kit includes a carbon fiber frame, motors, and professional-grade flight hardware. It is Section 889 compliant and CTSO approved, so it clears the federal procurement and competition-eligibility questions most CTE programs have to answer before purchase.
➤ What is Microsoft FarmBeats for Students?
Microsoft FarmBeats for Students is a hands-on kit that connects data science, artificial intelligence, and sustainable agriculture. Students wire a soil moisture sensor to a BBC micro:bit, collect live readings from real soil, and use their own data to make irrigation and crop health decisions. It works for grades 5 through 12.
➤ Does Microsoft FarmBeats for Students require a software subscription?
No. It runs with no ongoing software fees and no specialized setup. The kit is backed by Microsoft and FFA and aligns to NGSS, AFNR, and CSTA standards, so you can start with what is in the box
©2026 Pitsco Education, LLC. All rights reserved. All other product names mentioned herein might be the trademarks of their respective owners.