July 7, 2022
Our ‘Take Flight!’ curriculum-based education programs were incredibly popular when our museum was on Ferry Road, so offering them at our new location was a high priority.
On May 25, just four days after our grand opening, we welcomed our first group of students from Poplar Grove School, nearly four hours away from the museum. Over the next month, we hosted roughly 2,300 students from more than 50 different schools.
The majority of students came for our grade six program which exposes them to the four forces of flight (lift, thrust, drag, weight), Bernoulli’s Principle, aircraft classification, and how wings work, using our Science of Flight zone. What better place to learn about flight?
We received plenty of positive feedback from teachers and students alike, including one very heartfelt letter from Rebecca Waddell, a teacher at Dufferin School. Rebecca’s letter included the following comments:
“This field trip was a highlight of our year. For many students, it was their first field trip ever! We are writing about our best memories of the school year and the trip to the museum is the number one memory.
“Students attend the Dufferin PLC for intensive intervention in speech and language therapy. A large part of our program involves teaching the students through personal experience. It is always amazing for the students to get to see planes and jets in person instead of just seeing them in a book or YouTube video. A big thrill is for the students to get to go on the Viscount airplane “the Canada plane” and sit down as passengers. They love pretending they are on a real plane and looking out the windows. As one student wrote, ‘I felt like I was in the sky!’
“Watching the activity at the airport through the viewing window is always so exciting. Students often see planes fly overhead but rarely have the chance to watch them take off and land. Since our field trip, students have become more aware of what is happening in the skies above them.
“Chris without the Hat is an excellent guide. He is so knowledgeable and adjusts his presentation style to the language levels of the kids. He was flexible and followed the lead of the students when they had a specific question or interest about one of the planes. They learned a lot of interesting facts and increased their vocabulary!
“Transportation is a huge part of daily life so it’s an integral part of our curriculum. Some of our students have come to Winnipeg from Northern communities and they know firsthand the importance of planes to them in their personal life. It is important for all of our students to learn of Manitoba’s history of aviation and the future of aviation in Manitoba as well.”
Thank you to our hardworking programming team made up of Chris, Pam, Brady, Jesse, Alexandra, and Bill for showing passion and enthusiasm to all the students who came through our museum in the past month.
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