There are 2 units that the classroom teacher must complete with their students to prepare them for their trip to the Flight Center:
May The “Forces” Be With You
“How to Fly a Simulator”
May The “Forces” Be With You is an interactive, standards-based physical science unit taught to all Mesa Public Schools 5th grade students. This unit consists of seven activities covering Newton’s Laws, Gravity, Friction, Simple Machines, Forces of Flight, and Innovations of Flight. The physical concepts taught in this unit revolve around how they help to keep an airplane in the air.
If a 5th grade teacher plans to bring their class to the Flight Center, following the "Forces" unit, they will teach the “How to Fly a Simulator” unit. The concepts taught in this unit are the focus of students’ experience at the Flight Center. The four lessons taught are: Parts of the Airplane; The Instrument Panel; Bank/Roll, Pitch, and Yaw; and Using the Control Stick & Rudder Pedals. Through hands-on, interactive activities that integrate science, math, reading and writing, students learn the parts of an airplane, ssrc/science/flight-related vocabulary, physical factors that affect an airplane in ssrc/science/flight, and what it takes to keep an airplane in the air. They learn to convert MPH to knots, solve a variety of mathematical equations and apply navigation skills. Students must achieve mastery on a test at the end of each lesson in order to attend the Flight Center. Therefore, student achievement is evident through the completion of the unit.