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News & Media AOPA's STEM curriculum featured in PBS NewsHour's Future of Work series 

AOPA's STEM curriculum featured in PBS NewsHour's Future of Work series 

December 12, 2018 By Jennifer Non

AOPA’s high school aviation science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) curriculum is less than two years old, but it is already making a name for itself. At a training session this June, teachers of the curriculum visited AOPA headquarters in Frederick, Maryland, and PBS NewsHour Education Editor and veteran teacher Victoria Pasquantonio tagged along.

Phillip Campbell familiarizes a Van's Aircraft RV-12 cockpit with McKinney High School student Bryan Soltys-Niemann during an aviation class at McKinney National Airport in McKinney, Texas. The school helped field test AOPA's high school aviation STEM curriculum. Photo by David Tulis.

Already a mainstay for some 2,000 students at 80 high schools across the country, the curriculum was created to pique the next generation’s interest in aviation. And as public awareness of the growing pilot shortage increases, “the new curriculum aims to instill in young people a love of flying, which has somewhat waned in American culture for a variety of reasons and could be key to driving more skilled workers into the field,” PBS reported.

PBS gave readers a window into each classroom, describing how “classes offered to ninth grade students involve a mix of theory and hands-on projects.” It will provide a complete four years of study “by the 2021-22 school year, which will allow this year’s freshman class to take it all the way through high school.”

During PBS’s visit to the You Can Fly Academy, AOPA Senior Vice President of Aviation Strategy and Programs Katie Pribyl explained, “At the end of the four years, the goal of the program is to provide students with the skills either to get a job in the industry or pursue a degree in a related field.” Pribyl also mentioned that “it could never be a better time to get into aviation and aerospace.”

According to the Department of Labor, women and minorities are historically underrepresented in the aviation industry, but PBS highlighted how AOPA is working to improve those numbers. “So far, the participants in AOPA’s program are much more representative of what society looks like than the industry. Of the 2,000 students enrolled in the program, 25 percent are female, and 51 percent are minorities. That’s compared to 6 percent of pilots who are female and 12 percent who are minorities.”

The curriculum is provided free to high schools and is made possible in part by generous donations to the AOPA Foundation. Applications are now open for schools to apply to use the curriculum in the 2019-2020 school year. Find out more about AOPA’s high school aviation STEM curriculum and how to get the curriculum in your school.

To read PBS NewsHour’s full story on AOPA’s high school aviation STEM curriculum, visit PBS.org. 

Donate to the AOPA Foundation to support the high school curriculum and other You Can Fly programs to boost the pilot population.

Jennifer Non

Jennifer Non

Senior Manager of Media Relations and Public Affairs
AOPA Senior Manager of Media Relations and Public Affairs, Jennifer Non joined AOPA in 2017. A former traffic reporter turned media relations specialist, and native Washingtonian, she enjoys traveling and is working toward her private pilot certificate. She was recently honored by Ragan Communications and PR Daily with a Top Women in Communications Award, in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Champion category and is also a member of the Board of Nominations for the National Aviation Hall of Fame.
Go to Jennifer Non's Profile
Topics: You Can Fly, AOPA, AOPA Foundation

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