West Kings Tech Ed students cover ground-to-sky curriculum in spring unit
May 30, Tech Ed students from West Kings District High School visited 14 Wing Greenwood’s Airfield Operations Zone for the aviation portion of their information and technology curriculum.
During the three weeks leading up to the field trip, classes covered aircraft components, recovery systems, Newton’s laws and rocket launch processes; even building their own rockets, launched behind their school May 28 – but not before taking pictures of their creations in front of a green screen, as part of the photography and photo editing portion of their course.
“I really liked going inside of the planes and sitting in the seats,” said one student, following the highlight 14 Wing visit. “It was really fun, and the rockets were really fun to make, too. The rockets went really high and fast!”
Though the students were thrilled to participate in the outdoor activity, teachers offered Timbits and a McDonald’s Door Dash prize to the students with the best-looking and highest-flying projectiles as extra motivation. In the field, teams called out to each other to “lock it!” as they prepared to recover the rockets on their descent, and one excited teen called out, “Low key, if this goes the highest, I will be amazed!” before initiating the launch of his craft.
The tour of the 14 Wing airfield reinforced students’ in-class understanding of flight technology. Inspired by the connections made between class activities and the 14 Wing aircraft, students considering the aerodynamics of flight as they constructed paper airplanes back, once again, at school.
“The coolest parts were touring the planes, being told how they work, learning about the different jobs in the military and sitting – as well as being – in the cockpits of the planes,” said one participant.
