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Mid-Del Schools cements ‘Taking Flight’ details

  • Published
  • By Brandice J. O'Brien
  • Tinker Public Affairs
TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. --  Lt. Gen. Bruce Litchfield and Dr. Pam Deering confirmed the outstanding partnership and science-technology-math and engineering link between Tinker and Mid-Del schools Nov. 12 at the regularly scheduled Mid-Del School Board meeting.

At the assembly attended by approximately 100 Mid-Del Board of Education members, educators, parents, students and military members, Dr. Deering, Mid-Del superintendent, briefed the latest "Taking Flight" program successes. General Litchfield, Air Force Sustainment Center commander, shared his thoughts about the importance of education and how a Science, Tecnology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) curriculum can benefit the base.

"Taking Flight," a new two-year common-core based program, is designed to spark an interest in STEM courses for district fourth graders. Most recently program designers and the workbooks' illustrators have met with the district's fourth graders and introduced the concept.

"This program has taken on all new life, truly, with our team here in the district," said Dr. Deering. "This is something that's going to be here a long time. It's a great, great thing."
Common-core is a teaching method that encourages critical thinking and is based on standards that have been adopted by 40 states. The "Taking Flight" program is sponsored by the Mid-Del Public Schools Foundation and specifically focuses on a STEM curriculum, while incorporating the history of aviation.

"If you look at what's happened in the last 10 years compared to what's happened in the last 100 years in terms of the technological revolution, our kids have to be able to compete in that kind of an environment. Not everyone has to be an engineer or scientist, but we sure have to understand the fundamentals to prosper," said General Litchfield. "If you look at Tinker or our communities, we're going to have to raise kids who can compete at the college-level that we can hire on as engineers - electrical, mechanical or aerospace. And, not everyone will be an engineer or go on to college, but we need to have a pool of folks who can support the base and work on the aircraft or systems. We need folks who are grounded with character, fundamentals and principles that come with a solid-base education."

The general agreed fourth grade is an ideal age to start instructing the principles of STEM. He said it was in Mrs. Macy's fourth-grade math class where he learned the lesson of striving to his fullest potential.

In the self-paced independent class, students' were responsible for their own pace. Because math came easy to the general, he breezed through the class until one day he realized he didn't have to work so hard.

"I stopped really trying to crank out the modules. Mrs. Macy got mad at me and she made me come in every morning, an hour early to work on my modules and that was baseball time for me. That was the time my friends and I played baseball," General Litchfield said. "Hard work was probably formed at the fourth-grade level for me. When I saw your books, I thought it was absolutely perfect."