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Aviation education awards for public and private school teachers have been a small but important part of
SAFE’s efforts to promote aviation education since shortly after the organization’s founding ten years ago. The program has grown from one award in 2009 to four this year.
Heather Adams is a second-grade teacher at Moody Elementary School (Saint Clair County Schools) in Moody, Alabama. She has been teaching for 15 years and is “so excited” to win the grant for her STEM program. She plans to purchase a Plane Designer STEM Learning Lab for hands-on experiences. The STEM Learning Lab will assist students in designing, building and test flying custom model airplanes. Adams also hopes to purchase an Aerospace Engineer Family STEM pack for students to use with their families at home.
Amanda Callahan-Mims teaches STEM subjects to students in Kindergarten through fifth grade at Spring Hill Elementary School (Knox County Schools) in Knoxville, Tennessee. She plans to use the grant money to purchase four Thames & Kosmos Remote Control Machines: Space Explorers Science Kits. She is building a school-wide STEM lab for 459 students in the Title I school. Callahan-Mims will also be creating hands-on experiences for designing, producing and conducting aeronautical experiments.
Greensboro, Alabama (Hale County School District) High School teacher Charmelia Craig teaches a STEM curriculum to grades nine through 12. She has been teaching for seven years and serves as a Curriculum Coach for other teachers interested in STEM subjects. She plans to use the grant money to purchase miscellaneous everyday items such as balloons, drinking straws and rubber bands for students to create and design STEM projects such as spirometers, rockets and robotic devices.
Melissa Wedwick, a middle school teacher at Rockford, Illinois’s Cathedral of Saint Peter School, will use her grant money to expand the STEM science lab with learning modules for Flight and Space. This Illinois educator plans to purchase supplies and equipment for seventh (7th) and eighth (8th) grade students to design, build and test an airfoil, hot air balloon or airplane. The students will be engaged in problem-based learning where they apply critical and creative thinking in a cooperative learning