Education Through Aviation
by Bill Pritchett, Education Director
"Don't limit a child to your own learning, for he was born in another time." —Rabindranath Tagore
I've just returned from EAA AirVenture and our presentation at Teacher Day. We had a great crowd with enthusiasm for the use of model aviation as a classroom tool, especially because it addresses science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum and state educational standards.
A highlight of my time in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, was seeing the warbirds. I learned about the startling new technology that is coming to general aviation and aeromodeling.
If you have an outrunner for your electric airplane, imagine what it would be like if it were the diameter of a basketball goal, or if you had one of the smaller electrics for full-scale aircraft.
The aircraft industry is going through the power-to-weight dilemma that we faced a few years ago. When battery technology catches up, watch what happens with electric power for general aviation!
I visited the 2013 International Radio Controlled Helicopter Association Jamboree. More than 1,100 pilots registered for the event and probably three or four times that many spectators. Heli activity is a major growing portion of model aviation and the demographic is mostly young modelers!
Kudos to Dave Minter and crew for creating such a great event each year.
Last month I wrote about changes taking place in learning. Ted Kraver, education advocate, sent me the following which I'll share with his permission:
Disaster by Neglect
"I was engaged with Arizona civil defense in the 1960s when the 'bomb' hung over our heads. My mom got really upset that my family might be washed away in the late 1970s' Salt River 100-year floods.
"We have had dozens of huge fires over the past half century. These potential disasters were addressed with a sense of immediacy and with major investments and efforts to remediate the problems and to prevent occurrences with goodly success. Arizona leaders dealt directly with these potential catastrophes, showing true grit.
"Arizona has also addressed less immediate but longer-range issues such as highway deaths and water shortages. Over many decades our murderous two-lane road system has been transformed into a marvelous multilane freeway system with a 50% decrease in death by auto per passenger mile. From intermittent rivers and wells, [the] Salt River Project has led [to] the creation of an immense water system so that drought and dying of thirst is left to the pages of history. Arizona leadership addressed these transformational challenges with a unique pioneer spirit.
"The 20th century was a great success for Arizona; the first part of the 21st is not so much. With our history of anticipating and solving immense problems it is a bit surprising that Arizona leadership is now failing in our most critical 21st century challenge of K-12 education.
"For the past 30 years, numerous advocacy organizations, newspaper supplements, and Arizona Town Halls have defined that problem and recommended solutions. In the early 1990s I presented the K-12 digital learning solution with ASU when they presented their inventive broadband plan for Arizona to the GIO of Korea. Korea immediately implemented broadband for their people and they are now the world leaders. Arizona leadership would not recognize the urgency of this innovation as we meandered on at the starting gate.
"The lack of broadband meant schools could not transform to meet the needs of 70% of our underperforming children. Close to half of [all] students continue to drop out before completing high school and with grade inflation the rest graduate without the needed skillset and knowledge to succeed in job training or college. Even our prison system that is crowded with undereducated youth is more successful. Their three- to four-year recidivism rate is only in the 40% range, including 7% for violent crimes.
"The foundational asset required before K-12 transformation can take place is broadband internet access in every student's classroom and home. During the past decade the student requirement went from 0.5 megabytes/second (Mbps) to 5 Mbps. The target for statewide broadband system build out must be 50 Mbps if innovation and expansions in digital curriculum and online learning are to serve Arizona youth.
"The opportunity cost of not bringing this learning support system to our 1.1 million K-12 students is huge. The out-of-pocket cost is tiny. Let's assume we could immediately implement 1 gigabit (Gbps) per minute for each K-12 school which is the 2010 State goal for all Arizona rural and isolated urban schools. With 2,100 schools each student will average 2 Mbps.
"We have been running our two-person home office on about 0.9 Mbps each with a nine-month retail cost of $200. Annual wholesale costs to education should be less than $0.1 million. Arizona forks out [millions] a year for 100-year-old legacy education. It seems we are past [the] time where Arizona needs to dig down, grab a handful of true grit, let our pioneering spirit well up, and build out an evolving broadband/internet system that serves every Arizona citizen.
"Yesterday, I installed 50 Mbps service to our two-person home office for a lower cost than the previous 0.9 Mbps. The average speed tests is 14 Mbps upload and download. If I can do it, our state should do it."
Ted Kraver, Ph.D., is the president of eLearning Systems for AZ Teachers & Students, Inc., a not-for-profit 501(c)3 volunteer systems design and advocacy task team. eSATS is a volunteer nonprofit advocacy organization that was formed in 2003 to transform Arizona's K-12 education system from legacy education to eLearning. You can reach Ted at [email protected].
(Oh, and he's a great modeler!) Ted is so insightful, and although his writing is about Arizona, it's really a national reality. What to do? Be involved with your local educational entities and teach a kid to fly. You'll be amazed at how quickly they catch on!
Thanks, Ted!
Fly and have fun! ✈
Transcribed from original scans by AI. Minor OCR errors may remain.
