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Civil Air Patrol National Aerospace Education Officers School celebrated 20 years this summer.
Find out more about the 2023 National AEO School, held from June 12-16 in Cocoa Beach, Florida, in this month's newsletter.
This month's featured member attended the national school and is from Texas Wing. If you know of other outstanding member stories of AEOs or AEMs, we hope you will reach out to us at ae@capnhq.gov.
Teachers, we hope you are enjoying your summer. As the summer winds down and you are gearing up for the next school year, now is a great time to plan a Teacher Orientation Program flight. Find information in the newsletter.
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THIS MONTH: Member stories - Program updates - AE Safety Check - Events - Curriculum - Important things to know | |
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PROGRAM UPDATES
Start the school year with an aerial event!
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Each year, all educator members of CAP are eligible to take a Teacher Orientation Program (TOP) flight over their home and community location. For this upcoming school year, some educator members are planning their TOP flight to include an aerial welcome announcement to the students below to encourage them to have a high-flying year.
ANY educator member (AE member or Senior Member who is an educator) can plan the annual flight by contacting the state’s AE leader (see list HERE.) Each TOP flight request should include the teacher’s name and CAP ID#, cell phone number, and the city/state where the flight will take place. If two educators wish to fly together, both persons’ information should be included. (Both will get an opportunity to sit in the front seat and take the plane’s controls to fly the plane!)
Want to know more about TOP flights like the ones received by the teachers in the photos here? Check out the FAQs mid-page on the TOP Flight webpage link below and contact YOUR state’s AE leader NOW to plan YOUR flight!
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CAP's AE STEM Kit Program -- featured kit | |
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FEATURED STEM KIT - BRIDGE BUILDING:
The Bridge Building pack contains enough materials for 24 cadets/students to build and test their very own bridges. While working on this kit, cadets/students will be challenged to design structurally sound bridges while using problem solving skills to implement changes in their design. Cadets/students will study the properties of physics and its place in structural engineering.
This kit comes with 360 pieces of Basswood, 24 bottles of glue, 24 sets of instructions and a Teacher’s guide -- Teaching with Model Bridge Building Programs. A DVD also will be included that follows a class throughout the bridge-building process. This kit is perfect for young architects and engineers to design the bridges of the future. It is recommended for ages 9 and older.
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(These safety nuggets are things to think about as you lead or participate in an Aerospace Education activity. The writer of this monthly feature is Lt. Col. Karen Cooper, who works in safety and risk management on the AE National Headquarters Staff and is also the Northeast Region DCS/Aerospace Education.) | |
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THERE IS ALWAYS ROOM TO LEARN
“I Know What I’m Doing, and Other Lies I Tell Myself.” I came across an article talking about a completely different safety issue, but quickly realized that the title applies to Aerospace Education Safety, too. Too often, as humans, we think we know everything about a topic, or that we know a topic so well that nothing will ever surprise us. That isn’t true – there is always a potential for the unusual or the unexpected. Human error, equipment failure, sudden changes in the weather, and other things can happen -- usually at the worst possible moment. Be honest with yourself about what you know and what you don’t know. Stay alert, and keep an eye on your wingman, your students, and anyone else in the area. And listen carefully to those around you – there is always room to learn.
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If you have a safety topic you would like to be included in this space, please email kcooper@ner.cap.gov. | |
National AEO School celebrates 20 years | |
 |  | Civil Air Patrol's National Aerospace Education Officers School recently celebrated its 20th year. June 12-16, 75 Civil Air Patrol members from 28 wings and all eight regions attended the 20th annual National Aerospace Education Officers (AEOs) School at Patrick Space Force Base in Cocoa Beach, Florida. For AEOs, the school provided information about their duties and responsibilities to help them become more efficient and effective in accomplishing the AE mission. Aerospace Education Members (AEMs) joined the AEOs in hands-on activities and field trips. This year’s class visited Cape Canaveral and the Kennedy Space Center. Many of the dynamic hands-on activities at the school involved using some of CAP's STEM kits. CAP's Director of Aerospace Education, Dr. Jeff Montgomery, began the annual school in 2002 with the assistance of many volunteers. “Since the beginning of the school 20 years ago, the attendees have increased their knowledge of the duties of an AEO, the requirements necessary to be successful, as well as learning more about the many programs and resources available to them to help accomplish the AE mission at their squadron, group, wing, or region,” Montgomery said. “Also, I’m sure the attendees found the networking, field trips, and hands-on activities to be educational and fun additions to the overall annual agendas.” Click the link below to read more.
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AEO STORY
Texas AEO began CAP journey as an AEM
| Meet Maj. Shelley Potts, Aerospace Education Officer (AEO) for SWR-TX-403, Bell County Composite Squadron in Temple, Texas. Her CAP journey began as an Aerospace Education Member (AEM) five years ago. She has been a teacher in grades K-12 since 1993 and worked at a NASA Explorer School, taught science, STEM, robotics and gifted and talented. "Teaching space exploration was just a natural step for me," she says. "As a kid I would watch the astronauts doing spacewalks and Space Shuttle launches on NASA TV. My favorite teachers always taught science." She also credits the Honeywell Educators Space Academy Space Camp experience at the U.S. Space and Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama, for making her a self-described "NASA Nerd." Earlier this summer Maj. Potts visited the Space Coast (though not her first Space Coast visit) for the 2023 CAP National AEO School at Patrick Space Force Base, Kennedy Space Center, and Cape Canaveral. She says she "thoroughly enjoyed" the event, the 20th CAP National AEO School. "I also made new contacts with other AEOs, whom I will definitely be contacting for their expertise areas," she says. Aerospace Education is just one of the areas she serves in CAP. "Last summer, I had my first find with our emergency services ground team." Click the link below to read the full story. | |
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"I love working as an AEO because the cadets are interested in learning and are so polite. I love introducing them to STEM careers."
-- Maj. Shelley Potts, AEO, Texas Wing
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CURRICULUM SPOTLIGHT
Look, Up in the Sky! Things that Fly
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This month's spotlighted lesson plan is from the Aerospace Connections in Education (ACE) program guide for kindergarten. The Things that Fly lesson helps students identify the characteristics of flying objects and compare and contrast flying and non-flying objects. Additional activities include letting the students use iPads or computers to search for images of objects that fly, such as the Falcon 9 rocket, pictured. The lesson is found in CAP's Kindergarten ACE Instructors Guide as Academic Lesson #2. Or find it here. | |
Each month, this space features important highlights or answers to frequently asked questions. Here are three things you need to know now as an AEM or AEO. | |
You can update your eServices profile information. Here's how: | |
Sign into eServices and click on your name in the top right hand corner. Update your email address, mailing address, contact numbers, etc. This ensures you receive timely and pertinent information from CAP. If you are a teacher, ensure your primary email address is your home and your secondary email address is your school so that your annual renewal email and any other important information will not end up as spam in your school email account.
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AEMs: Is it time to renew your membership? | |
All Aerospace Education Members (AEMs) are offered an annual FREE “in-kind renewal." The online renewal email is sent 60 days prior to the membership expiration date. A renewal banner appears at the top of the eServices sign-in page 90 days prior to expiring. (You can’t renew earlier than 90 days.) Find additional information at the link below. Thinking that due to the pandemic you cannot participate in CAP’s AE programs? That may be partly true, but when we get back to “normal,” you will wish you kept your membership current, so do not let it expire!
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AEOs: Reach out to AEMs whose memberships expire soon | |
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AEOs, this is the perfect time to reach out to your AEMs whose memberships expire within 60 days or whose memberships have expired. For more guidance, see Recruiting and Retention of AEMs on the AEO Resources page link below.
Please note: CAP has several categories of membership, but each member can only be assigned one category of membership. Any adult uniformed member, who is an educator, may access all the resources available to an AEM. And, we wish to encourage our AEMs to “hang on” until the end of the pandemic and continue renewing their membership. Once things are back to “normal,” they will be glad they did!
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