| Montgomery Chapter in Joint Venture with CAP
Senior Master Sergeant Lee Mercer recently briefed students on a C-130 during Aerospace Adventures Day at Maxwell Air Force Base. Mercer and the C-130 are part of the 908th Airlift Wing, the state's only Air Force Reserve unit, which has its headquarters at Maxwell.
 The program is a collaboraŽtion between the Montgomery Chapter of the Air Force AssociŽation and the Civil Air Patrol to promote aerospace education and the STEM curriculum in Montgomery schools. STEM stands for science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
"What is a knot?" Mercer asked the students. "A distance," one student reŽsponded. Another replied that it's a nautical mile. Both answers were close, but not quite on target. One knot is a unit of speed equal to one nautical mile per hour, and a nautical mile equals 1.151 miles. So the C-130 cruises at about 345 mph, Mercer said.
Seeing math and science in action on a cargo jet or building shuttles and tossing propellers off the control tower helps get students excited about those subjects that can be dry in a typŽical classroom setting, said SuŽsan Mallet, the Youth DevelopŽment Program Coordinator for the Civil Air Patrol. She said the program at MaxŽwell included 200 students from Flowers Elementary School and Bear Exploration Center.
Mallet said the students from Flowers have been to STARŽBASE at Maxwell, a learning center focused on STEM curricŽulum and aerospace. The stuŽdents from Bear participate in CAP's Aerospace Connections in Education program. The day at Maxwell enhances both of those programs, Mallet said.
Teague Wright is a fifth-gradŽer in Hasan's class. He saw the C-130s fly over the Montgomery Biscuits game on Wednesday but it was "pretty awesome" to climb into the cockpit and see the inside of the plane, he said. Teague and a few of his classŽmates said they want to fly someday and that learning about aviation and aerospace with the 908th and trainees from the Officer Training School at Maxwell made it easier for them to apply math and science -- and it was just plain fun.
Programs like STARBASE, ACE and programs sponsored by CAP and AFA promote math and science careers for students and try to raise America's interŽnational standing in those fields. The Program for InternaŽtional Student Assessment is a system that measures 15-year-olds' performance in reading literacy, mathematics literacy and science literacy evŽery three years.
Return to the Table of Contents or go to the Next Article
The Air Force Association (AFA) is an independent, nonprofit IRS 501(c)(3) organization.
This newsletter is published monthly via e-mail. Submissions or comments should be sent to AENewsletter@afa.org. |
