Thanks to Snohomish science teacher Gary Evans, Paine Field has a unique program that inspires teachers to learn about aviation and then pass on their new knowledge to their students.
In the first seven years, 110 teachers have completed the four-day summer course, and more than 7,000 students have found a new way to apply math and science principles. Some may even have discovered an aviation career or a passion for flying. This summer, another 25 teachers are enrolled.
“I was so inspired by a flight I took many years ago, at a friend’s invitation, that I earned my own pilot’s license,” Evans said. “In 2000, I started my Science of Flight program in Everett to tell other teachers about aviation and to show them how it could be presented in the classroom as a science topic. Teachers not only get summer education credits for the course, but they also have an experience most of them had never even thought about before.”
Evans, the instructor for the course, has been a classroom teacher for 35 years and is an adjunct faculty member of Seattle Pacific University. He holds a master’s of education degree in science education and teaches chemistry, physics and environmental studies for freshmen in the Snohomish School District.
For the Science of Flight program, teachers have to prepare an aviation lesson plan for their classrooms as part of their coursework.
In each class, the teachers also meet with aviation professionals to discuss their careers, from aircraft mechanics and a search-and-rescue crew to airline pilots, aircraft dispatchers and Federal Aviation Administration control-tower personnel.
Plus, they meet with Paine Field Director Dave Waggoner, a former U.S. Navy jet pilot, and Stan Allison of the Washington Department of Transportation’s Aviation Division. They provide the teachers with information to raise students’ awareness of modern aviation career opportunities. Also, women and minorities in aviation jobs share their insights with the instructors about attractive options for studies.
Highlights of the four-day, three-credit, $265 course — to be held July 16 through 19 and August 6 through 9 at the airport — include an introduction to the physics of flight, classroom experiments and demonstrations with flying principles, two hours of flight instruction in a Cessna 172 and rides in a variety of aircraft.
Field trips are included as an important part of the coursework, including a tour of the Boeing 747, 767, 777 and 787 assembly plant in Everett; the Future of Flight Aviation Center and Boeing Tour facility at Paine Field; the airport’s control tower; the Museum of Flight and Challenger Learning Center at Boeing Field in Seattle; aircraft maintenance facilities; and the Museum of Flight’s Restoration Center at Paine Field.
Evans started the program because he wanted to open students’ minds to aviation in general. At the least, he expected the students would grow up to be better citizens because they would have a better understanding of the importance of aviation in their community and the economy.
“The information that is passed on to them in the classroom also shows students that flying could be a personal option in their lives. Even more important, students learn that aviation is a great career field they might never have considered,” he said.
Evans said he doesn’t know of any similar program in the United States but hopes that other teachers might become interested in launching their own. If they do, he hopes they can find the kind of help he found in Paine Field’s airport director, Waggoner.
“Without him, this would be a completely different program. He’s been one of our greatest supporters, and he’s helped me tremendously in putting the classes together and arranging a roster of field trips,” Evans said.
Paine Field has become a sponsor of the program, Waggoner said, and provides some funding to help operate the program and buy flight time with airport flying schools. The airport also sponsors an Aviation Academy that teaches youths about navigation, the forces of flight and how engines work. Then they wind up at General Aviation Day each year and get to go flying, Waggoner said.
Most teachers who sign up are from the Seattle and Puget Sound region, though this year, one teacher flew in from Germany for the course and two others came from California to take it.
For more information, visit www.painefield.com/scienceofflight.html.
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