Print 1 copy for yourself, if you will be teaching a class: Intro to Ground School – First Class

Print student copies:

• Aviation Glossary
• Intro to Ground School: 1 Aircraft

DISCUSSION:

1. Aviation is the science of flying.
2. How many people have been on a plane? (show of hands)
3. How many people have been on a small plane (less than 10 passengers)?
4. How many people have seen an aircraft cockpit?
5. What did you notice?

This class is called “An Introduction to Ground School.”  Ground school is where people learn what they will need to know to become pilots.  Flight school is where people practice flight skills, actually learning how to fly.  “Ground School” takes place on the ground and comes first.  “Flight School” takes place in the air and comes after people have acquired some important knowledge that will help them learn to fly safely.

This course is not ground school.  But it will give you a good idea about the types of things you would learn in ground school.

You’ll find that there’s a whole lot more to learning to fly than just learning how to drive an airplane, just like there is a lot more to driving a car than just learning to steer and use the gas pedal and brake.  Both require you to learn and use good judgement so that you can get around safely and manage risk to other people’s lives and your own.

What sorts of things do you think pilots need to understand in order to learn to fly?

• Airplanes
• Types
• Systems
• How they fly (aerodynamics, weight & balance)
• What to do if something goes wrong (emergencies)
• Airports
• Laws
• Airspace (where you can fly)
• Certification
• Navigation
• Geography
• Weather
• Flying Skills
• Flight Planning

Today we will be begin our studies by learning about aircraft.

Distribute Aeronautics Glossaries:  Aviation Glossary

What is an aircraft?

Describe types; use model airplanes  (Find model aircraft here)

Distribute model Cessnas (Model Cessna 172) and homework pages Intro to Ground School: 1 Aircraft

What Do Civil Engineers Do?

Amazing Science – What does a Civil Engineer do?

The Complications Behind Runways (National Geographic) (through 20:48) (28.08-36:42)

EMI – Engineering Ministries International in Uganda

Additional Resources:

Kijabe Water and Sanitation Fundraising Video

Kijabe Sanitation Project Flyover

Civil Engineers: Occupational Outlook Handbook

Draw on white board: Aviation Science spider web

Video: The Biggest Airport in the World Ever Built (while the video is playing, point out and/or have the students point out examples of the areas of science that you discussed while drawing the “spider web.”

Architecture of Airports…

Considerations?

• Planes
  • Huge
  • Wingspans
  • Air side
  • Terminal side
  • Tarmac, Taxiways, Runways
• Passengers
  • Departing
  • Arriving
  • Parking
  • Ticketing
  • Baggage
  • Delayed
• Cargo
  • Handling
  • Huge jets
• Airline Operations
  • Airline administration
  • Flight crew operations
  • Baggage handling
• Services
  • Food
  • Shopping
• Safety
  • Security
  • Domestic side vs. International side
    • Customs
    • Immigration
• Air Traffic Control
  • Visibility
  • Separation between vehicles and aircraft
• Additional Considerations
  • Deicing
  • Airport maintenance
  • Aircraft maintenance

Additional Resources:

The Architecture of Mexico City Airport

ArchKIDecture

Print copies for each student and for yourself:

• Infrastructure Student Notes
• VOR Circle

Show the rest of the video from last week if there wasn’t time for you to complete it.  (36:35)  The Biggest Airport in the World Ever Built

What is Infrastructure?

• A system or systems built to move and deliver things over a large area

What does infrastructure move and deliver?

• Water
• Electricity
• Communication and navigational signals (telephone, radio, TV, GPS…)
• People
• Fuel
• Waste
• Education
• Cargo
• Emergency Services

What does infrastructure consist of?

• Pipes
• Wires
• Towers
• Vehicles
• Roads
• Sidewalks
• Stations (of all types)
• Tracks
• Runways

Look Around: What is Infrastructure?

Exercise: Location by stations and bearings

Show an aviation chart with airways and VORs

Discuss Air Traffic Control:  How a Control Tower Works (1:13)

Civil Engineers are engineers who design and improve elements of infrastructure.

Additional Resources:

What’s That Infrastructure?

What’s That Infrastructure? Episode 2

Runways to Riches: The Importance of Aviation Infrastructure to the Global Economy

Aviation Infrastructure for the 21st Century NASA Aeronautics Design

Aviation Infrastructure in the 21st Century – Its Importance to the Local Economy

How to Run an Airline

“Is This Any Way To Run An Airline?” – Tom Paxton

Startup Boeing

Ducksters: Money and Finance

I have never been one to keep a homeschool portfolio.  I’ve kept good written records but don’t have time to arrange worksheets, artwork, writing and photos in binders.

But this year I’ve found an easy, quick way to keep a portfolio.  It’s actually streamlined my record keeping rather than making it more tedious.

If you’re reading this, then you have a wordpress.com account.  You can create a totally private blog (select it under privacy settings and just don’t share the address with anyone) and post quick pictures for your reference.  Here’s what I did:

Start a private blog.  We try to keep our kids’ pictures off the internet or unidentifiable, so I’ve made this something only I will access.  When it comes time for evaluations at the end of the year, I can show it to the evaluator here at home.

I chose a gallery theme (“Cubic”) because I’m just posting pictures and a paragraph listing what we’ve done for each week.

Here’s what the home page looks like, 3 weeks in:

As I add weeks, the squares will fill up the screen.

When the kids do something notable, or if they fill out something on a laminated sheet that will be erased afterwards, I shove a card that has the day on it  (“Day 9”) next to whatever it is and take a picture with my phone or my camera, then email it to myself.

Later, at the computer, I transfer the pictures from the email to the blog.  The program assembles them into a great-looking collage.  If I click on one of the pictures, it opens up a slideshow of the week.

Here’s a screenshot of one of the collages:

If you’re looking for a good method for keeping track of what your kids have done or learned, hopefully this will give you a starting point.

Enjoy your weekend!

Here are two excellent math dictionaries from www.mathsphere.co.uk.  Some of the terms are used more in Britain than they are here, but the explanations are excellent.

General Math Dictionary

Teachers’ Math Dictionary

This is a fantastic resource, especially if you have come across a math concept that is new to you or if you are trying to figure out how to explain something.

This sheet, available from www.mathsphere.co.uk, is good for playing tic-tac-toe games, designing Sudoku-style logic problems, and teaching children to line up their digits in vertical math problems:

3×3 Boxes Paper

These free, printable resources are available from www.mathsphere.co.uk:

Triangular Paper

Hexagonal Paper

Octagonal Paper

Brick Paper

Concentric Circles Paper

These are fun both for drawing, and for use with pattern blocks.