By Abigail Oleniczak
An EAA program tailored to K-12 youths that has flight education materials, STEM activities, involvement within a local EAA chapter, career exploration, and much more, can be found at AeroEducate.org.
Kevin Sutton, an assistant professor in career and technical education at Appalachian State University, and his team develop and create activities, lesson plans, and glossaries that meet the national STEM standards. This includes next-gen standards, common core math, and standard technologies and engineering literacy.
AeroEducate, the integrative STEM education program, currently has over 18,000 users accessing its content and more than 20,000 programs completed by youths. After students create an account, they can access flight-related education programs and earn badges along the way.
In addition to learning all things aviation, AeroEducate is also a database for sharing and connecting with resources to grow as an individual toward earning a pilot certificate.
Not only could youths get involved at the AeroEducate Center while at EAA AirVenture Oshkosh through forums, activities, and information, but they could also head over to KidVenture to engage in many different hands-on projects. KidVenture is located at Pioneer Airport across from the museum.
“If you’re just going to stand around, why don’t you volunteer?” Tina Stott said she was told this 19 years ago when she first began to volunteer at KidVenture. Though her husband is the pilot in her family, she and her daughter Britny Connella re-created the artists booth that was first started in 1999. The plan was to bring it “back to its glory,” and they did just that. This year, they branched out from STEM to STEAM, which includes an art category for kids who aren’t super passionate about math and science to still have a part in aviation and be able to contribute from an artist’s standpoint.
Kids could hand-draw airplanes and earn medals at the artists tent in the grass near the volunteer office. This year, KidVenture volunteers expected to hand out at least 4,500 adventure cards and engage with roughly 20,000 kids and adults throughout the week. Additionally, KidVenture expanded from 20 to 28 booths this year and included more activ-ities to keep youths engaged and interested.