If you’re into savvy new ways to develop science and technology for students, then Kimberly Cortines is the teacher you need to talk to. She initially planted the seed with the Fayette County Board of Education to create the Aerospace program, and it has been thriving at Oak Hill High School ever since.
Her Aerospace seniors recently went to the ProJet Aviation Education and Career Expo to show off their new tech skills. Students received a total of $66,000 in Aerospace and Aviation Scholarships to use towards any college that has anything to do with aviation, aircraft maintenance, or aerospace engineering.
Ten students submitted an essay, and six of them received scholarships: Dylan Massey, Kayla Coffman, Rachel Allen, Nate Smith, Matthew Cortines, and Abbie Ward.
Cortines says, “I think it was a really nice slice of the pie to be able to bring this learning experience from Oak Hill High School. Of the $300,000 in scholarship awards that were given out, Oak Hill received $66,000, which I think is a great percentage of the dollars awarded.”
Aerospace is a broad field: studying rockets, space exploration, airplanes, helicopters, drones, etc. There are so many aspects to aerospace, and within this field, you could be studying mechanical or electrical engineering. It really gets the students thinking of what type of options they might be interested in.
Matthew C. says, “I would like to go on majoring in Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering and work somewhere like NASA or Bowing, any of the big aviation companies.”
Kayla C. says, “There was a career that we learned about during the Expo about investigating plane accidents and tragedies. I thought it was interesting, and I would love to do something like that.”
All Aerospace students will work on a capstone project this year.
The ninth graders will do a rocket design. All they get is a tube and an engine. They have to 3-D CAD their nose cone, fins, payload cavity inside, and add a parachute.
The tenth graders will complete an R-C plane build with foam. They will finish all of the electrical wiring, the propellers, and the motor.
Juniors will build a drone, and the seniors will build an underwater robot. It’s very similar to the Mars rover.
Cortines emphasizes the holistic process when it comes to student learning. She likes to teach the word yet. “Just because it didn’t work today, doesn’t mean it won’t work tomorrow. It just means it won’t work yet.”
Kayla C. says, “I’ve learned the different aviation jobs out in the real world- how many opportunities there really are in the aviation field. One of my most treasured moments that we’ve done, which sounds kind of odd, is a wing strut. I worked with my friend Emma; I just remember it because we had to use our own ideas and use shrink wrap. We just did so great at the project.”
Matthew C. says, “I love all of the hands-on things we do in Aerospace; it’s more exciting. Being able to just get into the projects is really helpful in learning all of the equipment we use.”
Besides the exploring they’ll do in the Aerospace program, Kayla C. and Matthew C. received scholarship awards and plan to go to college. Coffman got $11,500 from Western Michigan University, and Cortines got $17,000 from Regent University in Virginia.
Matthew C. wrote an essay on how the Bush aircraft, using its short take-off capabilities, can help bring resources to communities that don’t have the access. With a series of landing stations and the capable aircraft, communities in third world countries can thrive using some of the methods described in his essay.
Kayla C. wrote about how aviation could be used to help build homes for people who have been involved in natural disasters. The program would provide all of the materials needed for the homes. The supplies would then be delivered and constructed to provide a new life for a family in need.
Cortines didn’t know that she would be recognized as the ProJet Educator of the Year, but her students and faculty encouraged her to apply.
“When ProJet, announced that I won Educator of the Year, I was very surprised and honored to have gotten this recognition. They said that I was a teacher who’d had gone above and beyond with their students and really made their scholarship essay part of the classroom experience, which I really did do that. The students worked very hard on their own essay; we had come a long way and had brought a lot of students into the phenomenal Aerospace program.”
