5th Graders Engineer Paper Planes with Port of Oakland
By the numbers:
250+ kids, 25 FAA and Oakland Airport professionals, 9 classes, 3 schools, two hours, and hundreds of paper airplanes!
Beyond the numbers:
“Cameras on, 5th graders!” Our teacher host cheerfully exhorted her 26 young learners to greet the four STEM professionals from the Oakland Airport who had arrived in their zoom classroom.
Throughout the next hour, students laughed as they demonstrated their experience on bumpy roller coaster rides while exploring how weather impacts turbulence and airplane safety. They proudly showed their carefully-folded paper airplanes on the video screens, describing successes and failures as they experimented with adjusting flaps.
“My first time crashed on the floor,” explained one girl, before eagerly demonstrating that with some modifications her plane now flew reliably straight across her room.
“Bravo,” exclaimed one FAA volunteer, clearly pleased that his virtual demonstration of flap (or, in the newly-learned aviation terms “aileron”) adjustments was effective. “That was some great engineering you did, to solve the problem of making your plane fly better!”
These were just 9 of more than 750 Bay Area Scientists Inspiring Students (BASIS) virtual presentations led by scientists, engineers, and STEM professionals during this school year, reaching 17,000 K-6 students as they learned from home during this year without in person field trips or recess. The visiting scientists are greeted like pop stars and create memories that last long beyond the time together in class. Read more about this year’s outreach programs in CRS Senior Manager Tyler Chuck’s blog post, Reflections on Outreach During the Pandemic.
“CRS has empowered our employees and community partners to share their love of aviation, engineering and environmental science with students,” says Luana Espana, Port of Oakland community affairs representative. “This is important because the Port is located in West Oakland, a STEM corridor. Local teachers are interested in exposing their students to STEM related career paths. Representation is vital, and it’s a game-changer for students to know that there are Port employees who look like them, grew up in their community, and have a passion for engineering and science.”