Education Commons^™

Systems Thinking Applied To Higher Education Curricula Development, Reza Rahdar, Mark London, Yuetong Lin, Hong Jiang

Publications

Systems Thinking (ST) is a general and yet nebulous term that describes an approach to understanding and working with complexity in the real world. ST seeks to evaluate different behaviors of individual system elements when they operate in isolation as opposed to when they are integrated as part of a larger system and placed within a particular operating environment. The education environment consists of multiple systems with different digital content, learning goals/outcomes that serve different stakeholders including teachers, learners, and administrators. The inherent complexity and interaction among these various educational system elements and functions make this environment a worthy candidate …

Teaching Diversity, Equity, And Inclusion In Aviation Education., Jorge L. D. Albelo Ph.D., Nicola O'Toole

Publications

Over the last decade, many companies have begun to recognize the value of a diverse workforce, equity within the workforce, and inclusion practices. Recent global events have pushed the promotion of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in the aviation workplace and education higher on the priority list for many. Unfortunately, the aviation industry continues to have difficulty in attracting and retaining a diverse workforce. Notwithstanding this struggle in the industry, those in education must find ways to educate our students on topics relating to DEI. It is critically important that this training is rooted in research. The aviation industry is …

Aviation English Assessment And Training, Robert Fowler, Elizabeth Mathews, Jena Lynch, Jennifer Roberts M.A.

Publications

Due to a significant global increase in demand for air travel, there has been a corresponding increase in demand for ab initio flight training. Thousands of international flight students seek admission to collegiate aviation programs in the United States and Canada every year. These international flight students come to the United States and Canada because flight training is nonexistent in their native countries. In fact, flight training in most of these countries is impossible due to airspace restrictions and onerous regulations. If there is flight training available in these countries, the cost is usually prohibitive compared to the cost in …

Language Education For Ab Initio Flight Training: A Plan Going Forward, Jennifer Roberts, Alan Orr

Publications

English language proficiency for the aviation industry is a critical issue given the industry’s growth in regions of the world where English is not a first or a national language. This chapter discusses language training for ab initio flight students who will comprise much of the next generation of aviation professionals (NGAP). It describes aviation English as a form of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), and the language skills required for flight school contexts where English is the Medium of Instruction (EMI). The chapter advocates for the assessment of incoming ab initio flight school students using a tool adapted from …

Suborbital Payload Testing Aboard Level 3 Rocket Research Platform, Pedro Llanos, Sathya Gangadharan, Nikita Amberkar, Isachi Halphen, Melisa Mastroliberti, Michelle Munasinghe

Publications

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University (ERAU) has launched several suborbital scientific payloads aboard Blue Origin’s New Shepard in 2017 and 2019. Students continue gaining hands-on experience in rocket design and construction, and payload integration and testing of future and more mature payloads to be launched into space. A Level 3 Rocket is being designed and developed at ERAU to serve as a scaled-down model research platform for launching and testing of payloads that will be later flown in commercial suborbital platforms such as Blue Origin’s New Shepard and PLD space Miura 1 rockets. Computer simulations were conducted to calculate the key parameters …

Varying Class Schedules And Learning Effectiveness At Far Part 147 Aviation Maintenance Training Schools (Amts), Kristen Hammer

Student Works

Of the three learning styles, kinesthetic (hands-on) learning is the most common for individuals (Dinkel, 2011). This is especially relevant for people who work in technical, skill-based fields, such as aircraft maintenance. The hands-on learning style, coupled with a job that requires a great depth of systems knowledge, tool, equipment, and component manipulation, and a multitude of other physical job-related skills, requires that the student maximize his or her knowledge and skill retention while in training. The purpose of this research was to determine if FAR Part 147 Aviation Maintenance Technician School (AMTS) students would achieve more success, as measured …

Stem And Sustainability: Creating Aviation Professional Change Agents, P. Clark, Doreen Mcgunagle, L. Zizka

Publications

With the evolution of the workforce and the growing needs of the aviation industry, a clear need for concrete sustainability initiatives and actions have emerged. Sustainability in this sense becomes a matter of survival. For this reason, in this chapter, we will attempt to close three gaps in current sustainability studies: Theory vs practice, intention vs behavior, and education vs workplace.

Our purpose is to develop a ‘simple’ strategy for integrating all three pillars of sustainability into STEM HE programs that create authentic engagement and real buy-in from the students that are then replicated in the workplace. Based on the …

Ten Years Of The Real World Design Challenge, Robert W. Deters, Brent Terwilliger, S.C. Kleinke, Ralph K. Coppola, Jeff Coppola

Publications

Preparing students to be successful in STEM careers is important to foster continued growth in the US and the world. The Real World Design Challenge is a high school design competition focused on the area of aviation. Students work in teams to solve a real world problem using professional tools. The 2018 challenge marks the tenth anniversary of this program. The first students to compete in this competition are now in the work force. This paper describes the background of RWDC, the different challenges that have been used throughout its ten years, the current precision agriculture challenges using UAS, and …

Predicting General Aviation Pilots’ Weather-Related Performance Through A Scenario-Based Assessment, Jessica Cruit, Christina Frederick, Beth Blickensderfer, Joseph Keebler, Thomas Guinn

Publications

Weather-related accidents continue to challenge the general aviation (GA) community and with the development of advanced weather technology, GA pilots need additional education and training on how to effectively use these weather products to ensure flight safety. Currently, the literature on aviation weather suggests that there is a gap in both training and assessment strategy for GA pilots. Furthermore, several studies advocate assessing GA pilots at a deeper level of learning by including weather-based, scenario/application questions on the Federal Aviation Administration’s (FAA) written exam for private pilots. After first developing a scenario-based, aviation weather assessment, we used a multiple regression …

Utilizing Guided Simulation In Conjunction With Digital Learning Tools In Air Traffic Control Training, Allison Little, Benjamin Cook, Holly Hughes, Kyle Wilkerson, Jacqueline Luedtke, Jennah Perry

Publications

For students in an air traffic control discipline, simulated training time is limited to in - class time and is divided among the entire class. Students are required to advance and obtain knowledge, skills, and abilities in the lab because there is almost no way to practice at home. All students learn at different rates as well as through different learning styles. Swivl is a digital learning/capture tool designed to enhance student learning by allowing students to refer back to the individual classroom lab training session via an online portal.

Swivl is currently being used in two ATC Lab courses. …

A Student's Perspective On The Utilization Of Social Media For Scholarly Research, Brent D. Bowen, Jacqueline Luedtke, Timothy B. Holt, David Ehrensperger, Hunter M. Watson

Publications

The research was conducted on the continuous advancements on the Airline Quality Rating (AQR) developed by Dr . Brent Bowen, and the benefactor of research from a student perspective . The general case study focus of this research is the AQR as it relates to the utilization of social media platforms, and thus having the ability to reach out to a broader worldwide presence . Media metrics consisting of social network platforms, and news releases to assist in broadening the viewership and utilization of research in meeting individuals needs in gaining qualitative and quantified information about the AQR . As …

The Utilization Of Peer Mentorship And Its Positive Impact On Student Retention, Timothy B. Holt, Jacqueline Luedtke, Claire Schindler

Publications

In recognition of increasing rates of repeated ground schools and flight lessons, in combination with decreasing retention rates in the flight programs at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the Department of Aeronautical Science in the College of Aviation took initiative to create a program that identified struggle students before they reached excessive failure or financial distress. The students identified in the Student Success Initiative (SSI) after being assessed would be required to attend a mediation session with their academic and flight training staff in order to create a specialized training program.

• Student Success Initiative (SSI)
• Identifies "at risk" students
• Implemented training plan …

A Process Plan For Consensus Building In The Evaluation Of Nsgc & Epscor Native American Outreach Program, Jocelyn S. Nickerson, Brent D. Bowen, Henry R. Lehrer

Publications

The NASA Nebraska Space Grant (NSGC) & EPSCoR Programs at the University of Nebraska at Omaha have embarked on a unique educational journey known as the Nebraska Native American Outreach program (NNAOP). The NNAOP’s main objective is to encourage and motivate Native American students to be more competitive in mathematics and science. This program has allowed for a variety of educational and public outreach activities to take place. However, in order to continually provide effective support to Nebraska’s Native American community, NSGC & EPSCoR sought an evaluation technique for the NNAOP. To execute such an evaluation, NSGC organized the first …