Kenwood Kicks Off Civilian Air Patrol
Tuesday, December 15, 2009
 A GULFlight helicopter hovers over Kenwood's field just before landing. The helicopter arrived as part of the school's kick-off celebration of the Civil Air Patrol program. |
 The students all received matching yellow Civil Air Patrol T-shirts. They will learn about aviation, character building and physical fitness, as part of the integrated curriculum. |
 Tyler Schroeder, whose father is serving in Afghanistan, read his "letter to a soldier" aloud during the ceremony. The students each wrote a letter to a soldier, thanking the soldier for serving. |
 Fourth grade science teacher Megan Tucker presents a Civil Air Patrol T-shirt to Ken Blackburn, who holds the Guiness Book of World Records for the longest flight time of a paper airplane. |
 Bradley Norton tests his paper plane design. Students in Tucker's class are sometimes allowed to test new paper plane designs. The class discusses how to improve them and how the modifications might affect the way the plane flies. |
 Connor Whilden holds up a simple paper helicopter he made. The students learn how helicopters work, as part of their aviation unit. |
Kenwood Elementary School kicked off its Civil Air Patrol program with a surprise Gulf Flight helicopter landing right on their playing field.
The student body gathered near the field to celebrate the new school-wide aviation program, when they first spied the helicopter high in the sky. Fourth grade teacher Megan Tucker warned them that as it drew near, it would create a lot of wind, "like a hurricane." As the helicopter circled the school, the cries of the students grew louder. When it hovered over the field and then made a smooth touchdown, the students jumped up and down in excitement.
Kenwood's fourth-graders have been learning about aviation for the past few years. Their excitement about the subject spurred the school to incorporate the Civil Air Patrol's ACE program throughout all the grades. For each grade level, the program provides 20 lessons with an aviation theme, incorporating science, math, language arts, social studies, PE and character building.
Students will learn about the four forces of flight, Newton's Laws of Motion, how planes and helicopters work and aviation history. The Civil Air Patrol provides exciting lesson plans and the materials needed.
Aeronautical engineer Ken Blackburn spoke to the students about the importance of persistence in achieving success. He holds the world record for the longest flight time of a paper plane (27.6 seconds.) He encouraged the children to create paper plane designs and to continue modifying and testing them, explaining that he learned quite a bit about the mechanics of flight by studying paper airplanes. "I checked out books in the library to see how real airplanes work," he told the students.
When he asked the students if they knew the four forces of flight, first-grader Ryan Ashley immediately gave the correct response: "Weight, lift, thrust, drag."
After the assembly, Tucker's fourth-graders headed back to the classroom. Although they will not begin their aviation unit after the holidays, they are clearly excited about it. The students frequently bring in new paper plane designs, which they are sometimes allowed to test in class.
"I like studying different planes," said Deknequa Lemon. "We even made his [Blackburn's] type of plane. We tested it to see how long it stayed up."
"I like to see how they work,and how long they can stay up," agreed Ryan Davis.
The students tested a paper helicopter and a paper plane, discussing different techniques for improvement, including adding weights to the front and bending the wings, balancing the plane and using less force in the throw.
"I have such a great collection of planes," said Tucker. "Some of them have gotten very innovative."
Related Files :
Related Articles :
No Related Content Found
