Grade-schooler Samuel T. Wood of Marietta, Ga. designed and executed this illustration of a military jet flying through his rendering of a technically accurate high-atmosphere sky.

"It's important for kids to understand that the restless curiosity they constantly exercise is exactly what science is. Science is what kids do every day."

Tom Dyson
NASA

What's that? What if? What about?

Kids have designs on the future of flight

By Tom Mead

A NASA Learning Technologies (LT) Program called Aero Design Team Online, headquartered at NASA's Ames Research Center (ARC), Moffett Field, Calif., helps students learn about aircraft design. However, in a contest initiated by the Design Team, it turned out the kids may have something to show aeronautical engineers about what might happen in the wide blue sky.

Aero Design Team project manager Susan Lee said, "In our projects, we always try to do things that are interactive and collaborative to draw kids in and get them involved. With this contest, we wanted them to think about aeronautics. We also wanted to do some educating. This contest format has the strength of being something familiar—a contest—and yet new—because the drawings and essays are posted on a new medium, the World Wide Web. The web is a rather larger broadcast medium than the refrigerator door—the usual posting site for airplane drawings."

Aero Design Team Online is funded by the LT within the wider horizons of the High-Performance Computing and Communications Program. This contest prompts teachers and kids to interact, learn and share on the web. "One of the goals of LT," explained Lee, "is to get classrooms—students and teachers—to use Internet technology as an educational tool. We are very interested in proving ourselves valuable to teachers because they are the gateway to the children."

In the contest, kids in grades K-5 drew pictures of what they thought aircraft of the future would or should be. Students in grades six through 12 submitted 600- to 1000-word essays about the same subject. Essay prizes were awarded for creativity, descriptive language, combining ideas, brainstorming and application of aeronautical concepts.

"I was happy to see how much thought went into their work," said drawing judge and 20-year NASA flight simulation and wind-tunnel veteran Liza Alderete, now Education Technology and Multimedia Manager at ARC. "One home-school kid made his drawing electronically and in color; the background sky was speckled-blue, shaded darker at the top and graded down to a lighter blue below the aircraft. For a very high-altitude flier, that is technically correct; that's the way the sky would look!"

Older entrants used words instead of colors to paint their versions of future aircraft. The essays focused on the type of airplane the writer would choose to design, the purpose and features of the plane, and why those design features would be of interest or value.

"We recieved these wonderful essays," said Susan Lee, "from kids who designed planes that would clean the air as they flew, and planes that could fly between planets.

When asked what contestants got from the experience, Alderete responded, "I hope the kids got an opportunity to be creative, and that they received a strong validation of their efforts. Every judge wrote an evaluative paragraph for the child, noting creativity and strengths of the design and asking a follow-up question."

"I think it's important," continued Alderete, "to teach that the Internet is a pathway into places such as NASA where they can talk with experts. That kind of horizon widening is invaluable at any age."

Also reflecting on pathways shortened and apparent barriers breached, LT deputy project coordinator Tom Dyson commented, "It's important for kids to understand that the restless curiosity they constantly exercise is exactly what science is. Science is what kids do every day. There is a direct line leading from the creative what's that, what if, what about that kids display in exercises such as designing these planes to the work that goes on at NASA. Projects like this can help students understand that the things they are interested in can actually become careers for them."

And when they do, we will all wind up flying higher and farther. For more information see the Aero Design Team Website. Although the competition is over, pictures can still be submitted and may be posted in the kids section.