Fri, Jul 01, 2011
STEM Teachers Experience Flight, Take Lessons To Their
Classrooms
Twelve teachers responsible for instruction in science,
technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) recently took part
in a Leaders Take Flight workshop at Alexandria Field airport in
New Jersey. A Garrett A. Morgan Technology and Transportation
Education Program (GAMTTEP) grant awarded by the US Department of
Transportation (USDOT) provided the scholarships for the
participants to attend the two-day program. Developed by Take
Flight Solutions, the workshop is one of twenty aviation-themed
programs in a demonstration project designed to expand the role of
a general aviation airport into a living laboratory and local
educational resource for the community.
Sue Stafford, Linda Castner Demostrate Three-Axis Theory
With A Wheelbarrow
During the intensive program, the dozen female teachers immersed
themselves in general aviation. Through a carefully designed
series of experiential exercises, they were guided through the
process of learning to fly an airplane. The flight experience
itself, consisting of one hour at the controls and one hour
observing from the back seat of a small airplane, was used as a
source of new metaphors for the participants to enhance classroom
teaching of science, technology, engineering and math (STEM).
Moreover, the aviation metaphors fostered new and deeper
understanding, allowing participants to view the challenges in
their professional lives through the lens of aviation.
Several schools throughout the region were represented at the
workshop: Rutgers University, Hunterdon Central Regional High
School, Raritan Valley Community College, Delaware Valley Regional
High School, Hunterdon County Polytech, and Alexandria Township
Middle School. Participants were guided through numerous exercises
by a team of five facilitators from NJ, MA, AL, and ID, including
program creators and pilots Linda Castner and Sue Stafford.
Christine Zardecki, who teaches in the Rutgers Department of
Chemistry and Biology, summed up the experience for the group:
“It was AMAZING.” The next workshop in this project is
scheduled for August 2011 with female high school students as the
participants.
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