Give kids wings - Curt Lewis

 

Kids Reach New Heights in STEM Education Through Aviation

Giving Kids Wings Academy shows students how they can apply what they learn in school to real-life situations.

Emma Hall became the first solo female glider at the Giving Kids Wings Flight Academy in the summer of 2016 - not only breaking the glass ceiling but flying way above it. Hall discovered her love for aviation through a seminar offered in her Hawthorne, California, high school by the flight school where she learned about aerospace, test-fly simulators and eventually fly a glider.

"Getting off the plane, I just could not stop smiling. It was the best experience of my life. It gave me a taste of what I could do and I was hooked!" says Hall, 16, a sophomore at Da Vinci Science High School.

Jillian Morrow flies above the Pacific Ocean and Palos Verdes, Calif., during her first flight.

Dan Mikkelsen founded Giving Kids Wings Flight Academy, a nonprofit organization based in Torrance, California, in December 2008, and has since taken more than 300 kids on their first aviation expeditions. Mikkelsen, a former social studies teacher, initiated this program because he wanted to teach his students in a more hands-on way and decided to combine his love for teaching and his experience as a flight instructor.

"I didn't feel like there was enough tangible, hands on-learning going on within the schools. There is a lot math and science being taught without real firm context and I believe aviation could be a fantastic hands-on real world application for everything from algebra to earth science. It's one of the most diverse and inclusive scientific professions," Mikkelsen says.

He teaches science, technology, engineering and math subjects through aviation, taking what students are already learning in other classes and making it more understandable and relevant to their everyday lives. Algebra, geometry, physics, chemistry and earth science are among the subjects he incorporates in his teaching. He gave U.S. News & World Report examples of questions that he gives students to show how he incorporates those subjects into his coursework.

Algebra: You have 50 gallons of fuel on board, and only 48 of that is usable. You're burning 8.5 gallons/hour. Will you be able to make your destination with a half hour reserve of fuel?

Geometry: You are trying to intercept the 135 degree radial from a navigational aid. What would your intercept heading need to be if you want to intercept that radial at an angle of 30 degrees?

Chemistry: Where do storms get their energy and why are they so violent?

Students use computer-based flight training devices to learn the basics of aircraft control, navigation and aeronautical decision-making as part of their classroom training.

"It's an interesting and engaging class; you don't have to explain to students how you'll use it in the real world," says Steve Wallis, principal of Da Vinci Science High School. "The way it's taught really supports the curriculum they're using in their other classes."

At Wallis' school, currently the only one affiliated with the program, students are taught to fly aircrafts on stimulators during the weekdays, alternating with their theoretical work in the classroom. Students fly in the air on weekends. Mikkelsen also brings in professionals from the field to talk to the students.

Over the past three years, Giving Kids Wings has partnered with Santa Barbara Soaring, a gliding school in California, for kids as young as 14 to get flight training over the summer. These gliders are engine-less aircrafts that enable kids to get a feeling of what flying is like at a lower cost than what they would pay for a powered aircraft.

At Santa Barbara, students take part in an immersive weeklong glider course that includes ground school and practice flights. At the end of the course, students receive their glider's license.

After earning his private pilot glider license, Asa Cusick celebrated by taking his first passenger: his mother, Marie Cusick.

"The kids will go from absolutely no flying experience at all to be able to fly a glider aircraft by themselves," says Bill Vrastil, owner of Santa Barbara Soaring. "Kids now have a lot more motor skills for flying than kids in the past, and that primarily has to do with games they have on their phones or laptops."

Giving Kids Wings provides flight training to high school students, with a specific focus on increasing the role of minorities and women in aviation, according to its website. According to Mikkelsen, only 5 percent of working pilots are female and only 6 percent are minorities.

His program is free to the students in his seminar at Da Vinci Science, and he also helps the kids fundraise for additional flying lessons. With this program, the first flying lesson is free but students are responsible for the costs of subsequent lessons. Giving Kids Wings also tries to provide student scholarships ranging from 10 to 50 percent of the total costs. If not for these scholarships and seminars, it would cost an average of $5,000 for the Santa Barbara Soaring course and $10,000 for the powered aircraft license, Mikkelsen says.

"I really wanted to give kids an opportunity they wouldn't normally have. Here's how it works: [It's] a class you can take for free and scholarships that will help you down the road if you want to pursue this. This is a skilled asset that you can use to break the cycle of poverty," Mikkelsen says.

Not all students of this program go on to become pilots but they do learn how to apply basic STEM subjects in their everyday lives. "It seemed like a great opportunity to give the kids some real-world experience that would translate to good jobs," Wallis says on why he's continued the program in his school for almost six years.

As for Emma Hall, she is taking an advanced class with Mikkelsen at Da Vinci Science and says she's learning to fly cross-country flights through simulators this semester and sees flying as a possible career choice for her future.

"Giving Kids Wings has given me the opportunity to pursue a subject area that I wouldn't necessarily have an interest in if I hadn't been given the opportunity. I learned a lot about the physics of flying, [an] atmosphere that I didn't know before," Hall says.