As Celestial Exploring is being written for this week, the matter of the federal punitive move of the US Space Force from Colorado Springs to Huntsville, Alabama is stillâno pun intendedâup in the air. Even closer to home however, the matter of flight and space exploration is secured in the curriculum of Custer County Schools, thanks in part to a $20K grant from Lockheed-Martin.
Last week, we were privileged to be a guest in Shelley Greenâs 8 a.m. âFlight and Spaceâ class. Tucked away quietly behind the woodworking shop on the west side admin, classroom and 4-H building, the learning environment of the classroom screams STEM!âScience, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics. From corners with microscopes to gem and mineral collections, from the periodic table to growing experiments, the room itself creates a supportive environment for inquisitiveness, experimentation, and exploration.
âFlight and Spaceâ is a course drawn from an academic curriculum resource provided by Project Lead the Way. A visit to their website, pltw.org, reveals the immensity of the imagination and creativity generated there for curriculum design, learner motivation, and lesson planning.
Although âFlight and Spaceâ is not part of the Gifted and Talented programs and services at the school, Green brings to the class all of the drive that has earned her the Educator of the Year Award for Gifted Education at the Colorado Association for Gifted and Talented (CAGT). She will be recognized and receive the award at the CAGT annual conference on October 20.
On the day we were privileged to be a guest and participant in âFlight and Space,â Green and her students were well into the class studies in aerodynamics. They had each designed and built a model of a proposed flight-worthy craft. This was the day for test flights. A couple of short runways had been placed on one of the classroom tables, and one by one the designer/builders hand launched their aircraft toward the landing area. Green filmed the models in slow-motion for later study of the flight paths.
Not all the models made it to the runway. And that was a teaching moment in scientific method and practice. Green pointed out that ânot being afraid of failureâ in a world clamoring for success-at-all-costs is part and parcel of educating the next generation of STEM professionals to proceed in imaginative experimentation. One of the students chimed in, âWith all the time and energy given over to standard testing and scores, itâs more educational to be learning in a space where failing or succeeding doesnât matter.â A lot of heads, including our own, nodded in agreement.
It was apparent too, that where one might expect kids to be competitive in this sort of project, there was instead a clearly established environment of collaboration. There was no âI won, my plane worked; you lost, yours didnâtâ at all; rather, there was an expression of âHow are WE doing in this project?â The dynamic of research and learning as a community collaboration, so central to scientific advance, had been spontaneously created in Greenâs classroom.
The course will move on to navigation and flight scheduling, then into rocketry and space flight. In there somewhere soon class members will build an indoor obstacle course for drones to maneuver, an advantage of having the high-ceilinged shop space right next door.
We left the shared class experience feeling like weâre all in good hands here. Bright, imaginative, creative kids at eight oâclock in the morning have their heads and good spirits wrapped around learning something together about the finer points of lift, stabilization, and design in aerodynamics, and doing that scientifically, while many of us are simply trying to absorb the news over a second cup of coffee. âHopeâ these days is spelled âeducation in critical thinking,â and we were blessed to have seen that in action in Custer County schools.
Of course, as Green noted with us, âThere are days when tiredness and anxiousness overtake, and heads are on the table rather than in the clouds,â but it seems to us that is part of the dailiness of, literally, keeping to the course. Who knows where the participants in this semesterâs âFlight and Spaceâ will go with their lives and learning and careers. But one thing is certain: they have at the very least been immersed in a learning environment where they have experienced the only perimeters of possibility are those of their own making.
We were charged with hope in their presence, brief as it was. Green is lucky; she gets it four days a week!
Back here on the ground in the Valley, we again have a Saturday opportunity to view our host star the Sun from the 11 a.m. to noon solar observation at Smokey Jack Observatory, and to investigate the cosmos during the open star party that evening, 8:15 p.m. to 10:15 p.m.
So, with hope for the future, delve into the present withâŚ
Happy viewing!
â W.A. Ewing
