The online implementation of an AERO Learning Scenario with 8th graders

Author: Maravelaki Sofronia

Abstract

Flight of fancy is an AERO Learning Scenario (LS) that was designed during the Aerospace in Class MOOC, coordinated by European Schoolnet (EUN), and part of the “Aerospace in Class” project. The participation in the MOOC provided me with the incentive, knowledge and materials to design and implement the LS with my students. I am a teacher of English in a lower secondary public school in Greece and I was so excited with all the information I had acquired during the MOOC that I really wanted to share it with my students. STEM subjects have always fascinated me and with the “A” added to the term – STEAM – I have the opportunity to combine my discipline – language Arts – with science, technology, engineering and mathematics to my everyday teaching. The learning scenario was implemented exclusively online (March-April 2021) with my 8th-grade students (13-14 years old) as in Greece we have been in an emergency remote teaching (ERT) situation since October 2020 (with few in between small onsite teaching breaks). The LS was submitted in the STEM ALLIANCE & STE(A)M IT COMPETITION / 2021 STEM DISCOVERY CAMPAIGN in the “Scientix Competition 2: STEM Resources”.  English, History, Engineering, and Technology are combined with the resources of the Airbus Foundation and offer students with no previous familiarity with the topic, a unique way of experiencing the science of flying.

“Flight of fancy: An imaginative though realistic idea” is a learning scenario that focuses on the science of flight and leads the students into a journey to the history of flying and the pioneers who made the imaginative task of flying realistic and achievable. Through the stories of the Wright Brothers, the inventors of the airoplane and Amelia Earhart, the first woman pilot to cross the Atlantic, students discover how flying machines were invented, powered, designed and evolved to satisfy the need for fast and safe long-distance transportation. The videos from the resources of the Airbus Foundation Discovery Space are an excellent means of inspiring students to explore aviation and learn the how what and why of flying!

Key words: History of flying, pioneers of flying, Aerospace in Class, Airbus Foundation, STEM