The Cambridge Advanced Dictionary identifies “endorse” as a verb with alternate meanings to include ratify, sanction and allow. For the Aerospace Education Council to endorse and support the ESO Pilot Project, it was necessary to investigate the project to determine its potential to contribute to AFA’s mission.

Initial awareness of the ESO Project was obtained by Vice Chairman Schlitt in a personal contact with Cadet Colonel Don Kinnee at the Midwest Regional Conclave of the Arnold Air Society (AAS). Cadet Kinnee is a student at Western Michigan University and has, on his own initiative, established STEM orientation sessions for elementary students in the Kalamazoo geographical region. An early review of Kinnee’s activity demonstrated he has successfully addressed AEC’s effort to increase the percentage of individuals with STEM related skills.

While Kinnee’s success has been limited regionally in Michigan, there was an early determination that Kinnee’s approach to orientating elementary students with STEM principles could have national implications. Subsequently, Kinnee has drawn on his experience to enlist other AAS cadets in South Carolina, Ohio and Michigan to follow his lead in planting the seeds of STEM with impressionable grade school students. For the first academic quarter for 2010, the STEM project was established as a formal “pilot program.”

Marv Tooman, from the AEC, was assigned as the Council’s liaison to work with Cadet Kinnee in developing this STEM Orientation Program Nationally. His assignment sought to validate the prospect of the pilot project in becoming a national service program for the Arnold Air Society. He assisted in the development of specific data collection instruments for the pilot project. The data collected from the project sites will be used to determine the potential for replication.

Seeing the eagerness of AAS Cadets from outside of Michigan to conduct the Elementary STEM Orientation Program, a high level of confidence was established that the project could be developed nationally. The data drawn from the pilot sites will be presented during the forthcoming National AAS Conclave in Seattle, Washington. Additionally, Cadet Kinnee has gained support from Western Michigan University in printing more than 500 instructional pamphlets for use by AAS Cadets across the nation. The initiative of this remarkable AAS Cadet may serve as a key in planting “seeds of STEM” that will reap great benefits for our nation in the decades to come.

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