Pilot leads students in flight of their own
Students don’t usually get the go-ahead to fold a piece of paper into an airplane and launch it soaring across the room.
Fifth-graders in the Johnson Elementary School Kaleidoscope class were recently given permission to do just that — from a pilot himself, nonetheless.
Ron Creel, a Southwest Airlines captain whose son is a third-grader at Johnson Elementary, had four students line up at the front of teacher Carol Estes’ classroom to give flight to their paper creations during the last day of the Adopt-A-Pilot program.
For six years, Creel has brought the four-week program to a Johnson Elementary fifth-grade class to spread knowledge on how planes work or how arrival times change between time zones. Southwest Airlines has helped bring pilots into classrooms for 20 years, he said.
But more than sharing how math, science and geography are applied in a career, he said, the purpose is to mentor kids on the importance of education and goal-setting.
from A1 Wrapping that purpose in aviation, Creel said, plays on the childhood ambition of wanting to be a pilot while adding some fun to the learning experience.
Students learned the four forces of flight — thrust, gravity, drag and lift — along with the three-letter codes for cities and airports, and the more dream-oriented lesson of what it takes to become a pilot.
“If you can believe it, you can achieve it,” Creel told the students. Creel, a pilot since 1995, tested the students with a quiz game, pitting four teams against each other and challenging them to see who retained the most of what they were taught.
With fellow students humming the Jeopardy theme song, team captains rattled of answers to the
time difference between Rome and Chicago or the first step of the scientific method.
The deciding factor in the competition was the paper plane toss,
and as the kids completed the countdown, the four students let them rip.
“We’re just having fun here,” Creel said.