When it comes to American education, most educators agree: the “sage on the stage” is dead.
Gone are the days when a teacher stands in front of note-taking students who parrot the information back on a test. Pedagogy has been moving to group work, experiential learning, and computer research. Nowhere is hands-on learning more important than in STEM or STEAM education.
At iLEAD California that takes many forms: flight simulators, flying in gliders, creating models to illustrate physics principles, and designing experiments that are carried to the International Space Station and examined upon their return.
“At iLead, we believe wholeheartedly in a hands-on, experiential approach to learning, because we don’t remember the things we memorize; we remember the experiences that we have. So we have developed a curriculum of project-based learning that allows for this type of experience and being located where we are in Aerospace Valley, STEM education is extremely important to us,” said Matthew Watson, executive director of development at the iLEAD California regional office in Castaic, Calif.
The Glider Program was created by Kathleen Fredette, who flew four missions with NASA’s SOFIA project. She said that “completely moved me into aerospace.” She has a master’s degree in STEM Education, Curriculum and Design, and multiple as well as single, subject teaching credentials.
Fredette says they are teaching Common Core eighth-grade physics in the form of “Why do things fly,” and “How do they fly,” with “fun and deep content,” which ultimately leads to an opportunity to fly in a glider.
“Each site has different demographics, but in Lancaster, some of those children have never been to the beach, but they’ve been to Las Vegas. A lot of them don’t even know the kind of aerospace things that are happening in our Valley,” said Fredette.
She said students are shown horizons that they never knew existed.
Fredette also oversees Dream up to Space, which has sent 18 experiments to the International Space Station. Students create experiments, which are flown in space and returned to them for analysis. One such project sought to answer the question: “Will oyster mycelium develop in microgravity?”
Students are taught how to find subject matter experts, then “onboard that person into the work they are doing,” according to Fredette. “That’s where the magic happens: getting our kids together with experts and being able to articulate, receive input, and ask questions.” They have to create a proposal for their experiment and then pitch it to real scientists.
“It teaches those soft skills of communication and relationship, and being able to work next to someone who might be kind of intimidating,” she said.
When they fly out of Skylark North in Tehachapi, Calif., students are meeting “pilots who are testing jets, pilots who are astronauts,” and Fredette sends them over to have a conversation, which they then must write about. She said some of her students have been published and have spoken at space conferences.
The “A” in STEAM stands for art, and iLEAD students had an opportunity to enter an art contest to design a mission patch to fly along with the science projects.
All iLEAD students must prove their learning by creating presentations with visuals. “Our kids come out being able to present.”
Another program, Intro to Piloting, is designed to help students who want to learn how to fly a plane themselves. “We connect them to pilots, and get them more time in a plane,” so they can learn what it takes to be a pilot,” Fredette said.
Fredette is a pilot herself, something she took up after her SOFIA experience.
The impact of these projects is “letting our students know you don’t have to wait until you’re in college to do something real or say ‘Maybe I want to start flying;’ you can start flying now. We’ll help you write scholarships because they’re out there,” Fredette said.
iLEAD California is a service provider for the many iLEAD charter schools in the Antelope Valley such as iLEAD Lancaster, iLEAD AV, iLEAD Agua Dulce, iLEAD Exploration, and iLEAD Empower Generations. They create programs that can be adopted by the various school models: in-person, online, and homeschooling.
“I think we are so very fortunate to have the different community partners that we do, that allow us to develop the projects like Dream Up to Space, and the Glider Project.
“And it’s something that gets our kids excited about learning and doing real things. Because that’s the reason we learn in the first place —to do real things. So, we’re excited to deliver these opportunities to our learners,” said Watson.
