Rationale
Because AFJROTC has specific curriculum requirements the objectives of the course must meet the overall objectives of Air Force. Specific learning objectives are to know the historical facts and impacts of the early attempts to fly, know the major historical contributors to the development of fight, contributions to aviation in the role of warfare and the key events of space exploration. This lesson will reveal that aviation was largely contained only in myth and stories until man was able to leave the ground by way of a balloon. Glider and airplane flight would soon follow, accelerated by the Hindenburg explosion. Students will find out that airfare was first able to contribute to warfare by providing overhead reconnaissance via a balloon. Finally, students learn that space exploration was largely driven by the Cold War. Most likely this lesson will offer the first time your students hear the term Cold War. With that said, the Air Force is very open minded with the presentation and content of lessons plans and finds that almost any educational experience can be tied to the mission of making better citizens.
The unit is built around my school’s 4X4 block schedule with long 80 minute periods. I have taught this course to all high school grade levels to students with a broad range of abilities. I also purposely provide no demographics on the students I teach because JROTC is inclusive - all are welcomed. However, students volunteer to be in JROTC. In my school we always have about 105 volunteers from the school’s 1300 total student body. You may not have the luxury of having willing volunteers.
I believe a course in aviation history touches many facets of learning; science, history, social issues, leadership and geography are just some of the many. But the aim of the unit is to have your students learn about major historical events and how they are remembered, documented and in some cases memorized on a large scale and on a smaller, local scale. If your area of expertise falls somewhere outside of aviation I am sure the opportunity to elaborate and spend more time on a particular lesson that you are more comfortable with will present itself. Aviation is a broad topic but the focus of the unit will involve students focusing on the question of what events/technological advances of aviation have most impacted our world history and in some cases the community they reside in. With that notion, this will be a research-based curriculum that emphasizes the impacts of major aviation events on the world and the resulting implications to the community surrounding Dover Air Force Base in Kent County Delaware. The intent is that the same understanding of major historical aviation events that my students learn about can be applied accordingly to any community in America. The unit can be taught as one whole course or taught as individual segments depending on your community situation and other classroom requirements.
A great deal of the students I teach are from families that are employed at Dover AFB. Many of them have been affected by some of the greatest aviation news stories of the last 100 years. Some may not have an active duty person serving in the military, but still reside in Delaware due to a previous family member being relocated to Kent County as a result of a historical aviation incident. In Delaware, aviation in some way greatly influenced the communities that surround Dover AFB and the people that reside in them.
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