Civil Air Patrol

As a member of the Civil Air Patrol, teachers receive marvelous materials to use in the classroom and also qualify to participate in some outstanding trips with fellow CAP members. I just recently returned from my first CAP trip to Edwards Air Force Base in California. We visited so many things while there including Virgin Galactic, NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory and the Mars Yard, the NASA SOFIA project and  the F18 Flight Simulation Lab at the Dryden Center; the Wind Turbine Farms of the Mojave. I was even lucky enough to see the Google Maps car drive past me when we were  shopping in Tehachapi. The trip for educators was only $100 plus the cost of hotel and some food. Our trip transportation was provided by the Air Force which flew out of Maxwell Air Force Base and we flew out in a C130. Our trip finale was getting to fly Glider planes over the Mojave. This was a trip of a lifetime and you could not do this type of trip on your own.

CAP offers national standards-based educational products, including a secondary textbook, Aerospace: The Journey of Flight, and the middle-school-level Aerospace Dimensions. Teachers can get free classroom materials and lesson plans from CAP by joining CAP’s Aerospace Education Membership program.

Through their award-winning 'Making Aerospace Real for Students' (MARS) program, CAP offers teachers:

• Free national standards-based aerospace education materials (for homeschoolers, too!)
• Awards, such as AEX, for schools that adopt aerospace education into their curricula
• Grants available from Air Force Association to incorporate aerospace into the classroom
• Low-cost aerospace textbooks for grades 6-12
• Aerospace education newsletters full of useful information
• Orientation flights in powered aircraft
• Aerospace-oriented summer workshops
• Aerospace education speakers and resources nationwide

For more great lessons and resources about wind energy and wind turbines visit kidwind.org You can also apply for giveaways to your classroom and they have great resources to download, contests to enter, and much more.