Middlesboro High School Houses Aerospace Lab

Flight simulators, drones, ham radio, robotic cars and a wind tunnel are not items that you typically see in a high school lab.  However, if you visit Middlesboro High School the students in Luke Gilly’s aerospace and engineering classes will be excited to introduce you to all of these treasures and more!

The Appalachian Technology Initiative (ATI), a regional rural technology education consortium under the direction of the Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative (KVEC), is combining the human, financial, technological, and physical resources from the region in order to deliver first class learning opportunities to every student.  Because of the remote location and relatively small size of schools in the region, many schools have very limited course offerings outside of Kentucky state requirements. Funding from an Appalachian Regional Commission (ARC) grant awarded to KVEC has allowed for the development of satellite hubs that will enable students to interact with cutting edge technology.  Each hub will have a focus area, such as aerospace or drone technology, but all hubs will include elements from each aspect of ATI work.  Middlesboro High School’s lab is targeting the aerospace engineering pathway, with opportunities for students to participate in a variety of activities that meet their interests.

Mr. Gilly, aerospace instructor, says he has been implementing the curriculum from National Air and Space Education Institute (NASEI) for three and one half years and that “the curriculum has changed each year”.  Last week the school received an email notification that they have been selected to participate in field testing the AOPA high school aviation STEM curriculum!  Schools chosen to participate in the pilot will collect data and provide feedback to improve the curriculum and to ensure the development of a quality product that all schools can use starting in the fall of 2018.  Foundational assistance in the beginning stages of the curriculum development was received from Purdue University.  AOPA is now working with a group of very qualified and experienced education and aviation consultants to build the curriculum and to ensure accuracy and authenticity of the aviation and aerospace content.  AOPA is also working with Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world’s largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, to offer continuing education credits for those who participate in the field test workshop which will be held in Frederick, MD, in June.  Mr. Gilly will be attending the seminar.

The aerospace lab at Middlesboro High School, which Mr. Gilly said was “built by the students themselves”, houses a flight simulator that is truly amazing.  A student demonstration introduced me to how you choose the airport for takeoff and also the airport for your destination landing site.  You can actually view the landscape below as you take off and go through your planned flight.  The student is the pilot and has control of the entire aircraft.  According to Mr. Gilly, his goal is to actually “buy our own Cessna plane”.

Khaelyn Spriggs, a sophomore in the aerospace class, believes that her experiences will “give her a headstart in college”.  She plans to obtain a degree in a medical profession, but knows that the aerospace experience will give her “something to fall back on” if needed.  She discussed how she has worked on and built her own rocket, operated the flight simulator and how interesting it has been to be “learning it first-hand”. She is one of several students who have been experimenting with the wind tunnel to measure the lift and drag of various wind speeds on vehicles.

The lab also houses a drone simulator, but the students have recently constructed their own drone for KVEC’s Inaugural Drone Race.  Mr. Gilly said, “The students had never done anything like this…opened the box and with no directions they put it together.”

Three members of drone race team

The class has a practice drone which has helped prepare them for the race.  It has been used to take pictures of outdoor landscape and to basically get the feel of flying a drone.

Chris Callihan, a sophomore who is on the aerospace engineering pathway, is a member of the drone race team.  He discussed how his dad has remote control planes and that they have a drone at home like the school’s practice one.  He said he always “thought it was neat” to do these things.

A second sophomore member of the drone race team, Hunter Wilson, remarked that the drones are “fun to play around with and it’s fun to learn new things”.  He believes he will be able to use this knowledge in life and “go some place with it”.

Another hands-on inquiry project required Steven Voore, who worked with a partner, to build an automated robotic car that will move forward and backward.  The students were not given any directions but they were required to program the movement on a computer.  Steven recounted that “it’s cool how on a computer you can type stuff in to make the car go…it’s fun to build stuff”.

 

The class’s ham radio project is nearing completion.  Ham radio, also known as amateur radio is a “popular hobby and service that brings people, electronics and communication together. People use ham radio to talk across town, around the world, or even into space, all without the Internet or cell phones. It’s fun, social, educational, and can be a lifeline during times of need” (http://www.arrl.org/what-is-ham-radio).  Logan Carter, a sophomore and a student in the aerospace class plus a  member of the drone race team, has developed a passion for this project.  He said when he was given the option to work on setting up the ham radio station, he decided to do it in order to “better himself physically and mentally” and also that “any opportunity to expand what I know is an opportunity I’m willing to take”.  He discussed how the process of getting his license to be a legal user “went about as smooth as a bumpy road”!  After studying materials online for a couple of weeks, Logan attended a course offered at the Bell County Rescue Squad Station and then took the paper/pencil test all in the same day.  Having passed the assessment, Logan is the only student at Middlesboro High School at the present time who has the certification through the Federal Communications Commission (FCC).  He has been assigned a designation code, or “call sign”, by the FCC which he says enables the commission “to know who you are if you mess up” on the radio.  After taking a second course and test in the near future, he will have more freedoms on the radio.  Logan says he is “looking forward to expanding and helping other students in the class”.  When the antenna is in place outside the lab, the students will be able to connect with the International Space Station and to many other locations around the world.

The students and instructor, Mr. Luke Gilly, have many exciting plans for the continuation of the aerospace lab at Middlesboro High School.  With the available resources through KVEC and with the search for other funding sources in progress, students in the future will be amazed at the opportunities available to them in their own hometown!

Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Email

Leave a Comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Welcome Back