BGCA’s Erica Warren is back on the ClubX Blog with fun ideas to bring STEM, career exploration, and celebrations together!
The aviation industry is projected to see steady growth over the next decade but faces a potential shortfall of industry professionals. BGCA has partnered with Allegiant Air to foster youth interest in aviation careers and National Aviation Day on August 19th and Girls in Aviation Day on September 23rd offer two great opportunities to celebrate aviation and spark youth interest in aviation careers.
Build Paper Airplanes
What is more fun than building and flying paper airplanes? One of the easiest ways to begin conversations about careers in aviation is to spend some time building and testing paper airplanes. This simple activity can become a rich STEM experience if you incorporate the four factors of aerodynamics and use the scientific process to test different designs. You can find tutorials for building airplanes online, like this one for the Gremlin.
Visit a local Aviation Museum or Regional Airport
This needs a bit of preplanning, but a day trip to an aviation museum or regional airport can be an exciting way to spark interest in aviation. Admission into the flight museums is often free or very inexpensive. On the tours, youth can learn about the history of aviation, famous pilots, explore different types of airplanes, and learn about the mechanics of flight. If you don’t have a local museum, check out this video of the a Flight Museum in Atlanta.
Aviation Career Panel
There might be nothing cooler than talking to a pilot in person about their job. Contact local organizations like pilot schools, regional airports, flight museums, and aviation engineering warehouses to find professionals willing to talk to your youth virtually or in person about their careers. If you can’t find anyone, check out this video of a Day in the Life of an Allegiant Pilot.
Read Books About Planes
There are many books about flying and airplanes that you can incorporate into a read aloud. How Airports Work by Lonely Planet Kids, My First Trip on an Airplane by Vic Parker, and Flight by Robert Crowther are great books for school-age youth. Tweens and teens might enjoy books on different pilots like Bessie Coleman: Daring to Fly by Sally Walker or Flygirl by Sherri Smith.
Download the Aviation for Girls App
The Aviation for Girls app is available for Apple and Android devices and features interviews, activities, paper airplane templates, scholarships and more! This app does require an account to access, so youth should only download on personal devices with parental permission, but as a leader, you can download and print the activities or display the content for the group.
These are just a few ways to spark interest in Aviation for National Aviation Day and Girls in Aviation Day. Be sure to check out BGCA Resources such as the Summer Brain Gain STEM: Investigating Flight module. And be on the lookout for new aviation activities dropping on MyFuture soon!
How do you plan to celebrate Aviation Day? What are your favorite ways to incorporate STEM and Career programming into your Club? We want to hear! Comment below, on the BGCA Youth Development Facebook page, or email ClubXBlog@bgca.org.
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