STEM Stars: Helping Flight Nights continue to soar  

A foundation of the Chief Science Officer (CSO) program is to amplify student voices by bringing people together to ignite new opportunities in STEM learning.

One way CSO accomplishes this is through the action planning process. Every CSO completes an annual action plan on a topic to enrich STEM awareness and education in the community. Creating and implementing an action plan is also a great opportunity for personal growth, leadership development, and collaboration with STEM professionals.

I’ve had the awesome experience of developing and implementing a Flight Night as my action plan for my past five years as a CSO. Flight Night is an educational event for elementary students, typically third through fifth grade, where they can learn all about the science and careers of flight and aviation. These events occur at Midland’s Jack Barstow Airport and are done in partnership with the Experimental Aviation Association (EAA) Chapter 1093 and elementary schools from Midland.

I sought a partnership with the team from Barstow Airport because they were looking for ways to use their newly created educational area and to have more educational opportunities for the community. The first Flight Night was for students and families of Siebert Elementary, the second for Adams Elementary, and the third for Central Park Elementary.

Each event included a multitude of hands-on activities on topics such as the phonetic alphabet, parts of an airplane, the aspect of the atmosphere, the forces of flight, Bernoulli’s principle, and communication of flight patterns from air traffic control.

Aviation professionals, including pilots, were also on hand to interact with and learn from. During each event, planes were conducting takeoffs, touchdowns, and cool tricks in the air which impressed and entranced the students. In addition to multiple airplanes, there were also several other interesting forms of aircraft, such as gyro-copters, helicopters including an actual med-flight, and drones.

Many volunteers were recruited to support the event, including high school students, who dressed up as important aviation historical figures and role-played for the younger students, teaching them about key historical events.

For the 2020-2021 school year, I was unable to host a Flight Night due to all of the COVID restrictions. Luckily, this year, we are back on track and the planning team is ready to create an awesome event for Plymouth Elementary in spring 2022. The event would not be possible without the dedication and innovative STEM thinking of the planning team.

Serving with me on the core planning team this year are representatives from Barstow Airport and the EAA Chapter, Sarah Pagano, Bonnie McManus, and Dot Hornsby. Planning from Plymouth Elementary and Midland Public Schools are Margaret Doan, Jen Servoss, and Penny Miller-Nelson. I am excited this year to include first-year CSOs Braeden from Freeland Middle School and Preston from Jefferson Middle School. Including their voices and ideas in the planning will help make the event even better, which is what we aim for each time we plan and host a Flight Night.

This school year, I will be graduating and won’t be able to be the sole leader for Flight Nights anymore. But with the addition of CSOs Braeden and Preston, they will be able to learn how the planning process works and carry the project on without me in the future.

With CSOs Preston and Braeden, we can continue creating a strong and sustainable partnership with the schools and the team from Barstow Airport and the EAA Chapter, ensuring this wonderful student-focused, community-based STEM learning experience can continue into the future.

Ava Nelson is a Chief Science Officer and a senior at H.H. Dow High School.