I recently taught an eigth grade science class on motion. The discussion revolved around Newton's Third Law of Motion.

I used Boeing 727 and 737 models along with great posters of aircraft in flight, the 737 NG cockpit, and the Space Shuttle. I talked about turbine engines, reciprocating engines, rocket engines, and propellers.

The various phases of flight from takeoff to landing was covered. I talked about the space program.

The level of interest from 125 students was......mostly apathy. One student proclaimed no interest at all in anything relating to aviation, space, or exploration. The majority of the students just sat there or tried to engage in conversation with their friends.

No, this was not a lecture. I tried to engage the students with comments, questions, and conversation.

I asked what they are interested in doing one day. The most frequent answers: computer programmers, lawyers, and accountants.

Accountants???

Where are the kids interested in becoming astronauts, pilots, professional baseball players, and firemen?

I had one student express an interest in aviation.

 

Skyhigh reached them before you did (which also explains the interest in programming and accounting)

If it makes you feel any better, I would have been riveted by your presentation

 

Maybe it's a blessing in disguise. What if the rest of them wanted to fly for Gulfstream?!

 

That is looking at it from the professional aviation view - but he said no interest in Firefighting or Professional Athlete either Sounds like a generation that might have been brought up on Nintendo and XBox. Of course I wish I needed an accountant and I certainly like those game
programmers that keep coming up with better and better HALOs

USMCFLYR

 

We won't need any more pilots for a few years...but interest in aviation and space is a good lead-in to science and engineering, and we WILL be needing more of those folks.

The aerospace/defense industry even has an acronym for it: STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics). Where we are going to get them in the future is a big issue for those industries. Especially defense, since they cannot simply offshore, or sponsor visas for foreign nationals like other sectors.

 

It is possible that explaining how a jet engine works, etc is over the heads of an 8th grader. You can bore anyone if you pump enough misunderstood words and concepts at them.

Kids at that age just want to see the "awesome" side of things. Talk about speed, altitude, weight and mass and try to equate it to things they know - school buses, mom's minivan, etc. The things that an 8th grader is familiar with is quite limited.

If an alien came down and through a bunch of terms at me and tried to explain how a hyper drive works, I'd probably be interested until I was lost. Perhaps this is what happened to the kids.

Aviation wouldn't be packed with the folks it is if it didn't have a following. The first folks to walk on Mars are in grade school right now, don't forget that. Perhaps one of them was in that very class.

Age and intellectual development will eventually allow those with the innate interest to work down into the detail level required to confront the actual subject.

 

I agree. I have sat through many boring presentations.

I know my audience in this case. I have taught these kids many times. The lesson was kept at their level with a bit more information to challenge them a little.

What is distressing is the utter lack of interest in what I consider to be a fascinating area of study. Even if they are not totally wrapped up in everything aviation and space, certainly there should be some level of interest.

Yesterday I had my class watch live the launch of the space shuttle Atlantis. Several students did not lift up their head to watch, others had no idea what they were looking at, and some thought it was a movie. Yet I had introduced to the class what they were about to see.

 

Many of them could be doped up on psychiatric drugs too, numbing their interest in anything "life".

Its more prevalent that you might realize.

 

I think it is sad that the wonder of learning new things seem to be gone from so many kids.

Excessive exposure to video games, movies, television, and electronic gadgets? Few things seem to fascinate them anymore.

How many kids visit the cockpit on your flights? I am always amazed at the lack of interest when I invited people to come up front. I still encourage families to visit the cockpit, yet get few takers.

 

Is this really a surprise? When I left teaching 20 years ago (has it really been that long?), most of my students would have been bored watching porn after three days.

After Apollo 11, national interest in the space program dropped like a brick. The public took on the attitude of "been there, done that, so why keep spending money on a couple hundred pounds of rocks?"

CNN once had a pretty good aerospace department, but it was disbanded when management figured out that rehashing the death of JonBennet Ramsey sold more ads than repairing the Hubble Space Telescope.