Albion Park High School students are in for a special treat on Friday in the lead up to Wings Over Illawarra.
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The school runs an annual STEM project for Year 7 students who learn about aerodynamics and design by building small planes.
This Friday the students will get to meet RAAF pilots as part of Wings Over Illawarra. They undertook the project last term and the RAAF will be at the school to check out their model aircraft and be given a demonstration. The pilots will then do a presentation and take part in a Year 7 Q & A in the school auditorium.
The visit coincides with a Wings Over Illawarra practice day on Friday where Matt Hall, Jeff Trappett, Paul Bennet, Chris Clark and the Russian Roolettes prepare for the weekend event expected to attract up to 40,000 people.
Teacher in charge of the STEM project Josh Carters attended the Wings Over Illawarra launch at Illawarra Regional Airport with some of the students in early April.
"I am a technology teacher and was part of a group of teachers who wanted to design a project based around the STEM principle of science, technology, engineering and maths," he said.
"In thinking about what we could do it was obvious there is an air show at our back door every May.
"We did some research into how we could teach students about aviation.
"We are now doing it with 187 Year 7 students this year over a three week period. It is fairly intensive.
"They design a simple plane based on very little aerodynamic principles. They then show us the basic principles that apply".
The plane is then dismantled and put back together with correct wings shapes and proper aerodynamic principles.
The students collect data along the way as they modify wing shapes and observe the difference as the design is improved.
Mr Carters said it was a great learning exercise.
"The partnership with Wings Over Illawarra is really important. It is allowing us to run a project and the students get to show it off by displaying it to a real audience," he said.
"And being able to have pilots come up to the school and talk about aviation with the kids at our final flying day is fantastic".
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Greg Ellis
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
Almost four decades in electronic, print and digital media. A writer, presenter, emcee, photographer and videographer with degrees in business management, marketing and human resources and tertiary qualifications in photography.
