Thursday, August 12, 1999
Thrill of flying found in rig
Vocational campus to get own such lab
BY SUE KIESEWETTER
Enquirer Contributor
FAIRFIELD TOWNSHIP — Butler County children and educators got a glimpse this week of hands-on aviation instruction that soon will be part of the D. Russel Lee Career-Technology Center.
NASA's 53-foot-long Mobile Aeronautics Education Laboratory made its first Southwest Ohio visit since it was put together three years ago. The unit, which criss-crosses the United States for seven months each year, has 10 work stations for exer cises in math, science, engineering and technology.
At one station, a person sits in a pilot's seat, surrounded by three screens, as he flies a biplane. In the virtual reality lab, a headpiece allows the feeling of being the pilot or co-pilot in a cockpit.
Other stations allow visitors to design and cost out their own airplane, gather weather information for a cross-country flight, chart a flight path, test aeroshapes in a wind tunnel, and search the Internet for information needed to complete a cross-country flight.
“It showed me some things I might want to do when I get older,” said Mark Emery, a Ross Middle School eighth-grader. “I always liked technical things like that.”
Talawanda Schools Superintendent Susan Cobb said she was amazed by the real- world applications the lab offered while still being fun for
children.
“When I was in school, these things weren't even thought of,” Ms. Cobb said.
During the school year, about 14 students at a time spend 60-90 minutes working through each of the activities, said Craig Frohman, a NASA public relations specialist based at the Glenn Research Center in Cleveland. A team of NASA engineers and educators from Cuyahoga Community College, Cleveland-area teachers and faculty from Cleveland State University developed the curriculum.
At the biplane flight simulator, students are allowed about five minutes for their cross-country trip from Washington, D.C., to San Francisco, Mr. Frohman said that during that time, the goal is to identify at least one or two of the six landmarks they will fly over.
The career center will partner with NASA (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) to place the stations in a classroom lab, part of an expansion project that begins later this month. Already, NASA has partnered with about 14 schools nationally to place identical stations in classrooms. The goal is to have about 100 sites nationally, said NASA's Rick Tolton.
“I think it's a wonderful teaching tool,” said Sue Paulus, of Hamilton. “There's a real need to have students feel math and science are important, and to show them what kinds of careers studying them can lead to.”
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