You Can Fly: Bringing Science To Life

As high schools increasingly look to offer career and technical education for students, aviation provides a range of career options that put science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) into practice. Purser said the idea of incorporating aviation into his teaching came from Eric Opiela, a friend, pilot, and Karnes City ISD Education Foundation board member. Opiela told him about a symposium where AOPA would focus on how to launch a high school aviation program as part of STEM curriculum.

Purser attended AOPA’s first high school aviation STEM symposium and came back energized. With support from school administration and the curriculum director, he launched an aviation physics class during the 30-minute “excellence period,” a time allotted to allow students to pursue additional activities and programs. After some formal instruction, participants had a chance to fly three simulators paid for by a grant from the district’s education foundation. “While for them it was a nice gaming experience, they began to ask questions,” Purser said. 'What are all these dials?’ The questions kept tumbling out of these students. They really want to know about aviation.”

Middle schoolers also had a chance to learn with the simulators when the school district incorporated a week of aviation education into its STEM summer camp. At the end of the week, the school showcased the students’ skills on a large screen in the gymnasium, Purser said—and one sixth grader took off, navigated by GPS to another airport, and landed in front of the audience.

This past summer, the school was approved to get state credit for an aviation science class, an achievement Purser attributes to support from the school district. And a community of aviators—including Opiela; AOPA; Texas Aviation Academy, where Purser took lessons to enrich his own understanding of flight; and Karnes County Airport Manager Ron Hyde—got involved. “Once you ask an aviator something, they will help you out,” Purser said.

Now Purser is among the teachers field-testing AOPA’s ninth-grade aviation STEM curriculum designed as the first part of a plan to roll out comprehensive, four-year aviation study options. Purser said the curriculum—complete with lesson plans, daily assessments, teacher notes, and more—is so comprehensive, “You basically can walk in a class and you’re done.” He said he was also impressed with the presentations at the AOPA high school aviation symposium, and he will return as a presenter this year.

Just weeks into the fall semester, students were taking off and landing with the simulators, and Purser said grants would allow the students to participate in introductory flights. “How can anybody be bored with the physics of flight?” Purser said. “The laws of physics come together when you explain it through aviation.”

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