At the Academy of Aerospace and Engineering at John Wallace Middle School we invite in a guest speaker about twice per month on average. All of these speakers are people involved with aerospace or engineering in some way or another. My goal is also for the speaker’s main focus to match up with the current unit of study. Today we had Senior Master Sergeant Babcock, Connecticut Air National Guard, come and speak about the aircrew flight equipment career field, formerly known as life support. This career field involves the maintenance and preparation of equipment such as oxygen masks, parachutes, and survival gear that keep aircrew alive at high altitudes and in emergencies. This matched up well with our current science unit on the human body systems, especially the respiratory and circulatory systems, and with our current aerospace science unit on the physiology of flight and space travel. Sergeant Babcock gave an outstanding presentation explaining the effects of high altitude and low pressure on the human body, answered questions, and demonstrated various pieces of aircrew flight equipment which the students could then try on. The following photos show the students donning helmets, parachutes, and various oxygen systems. This lesson is an authentic application of the science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) topics we are studying, and it is one of the best ways to reinforce these topics.
Academy of Aerospace and Engineering 