Civil Air Patrol’s Aerospace Connections in Education (ACE) program for kindergarten-through-sixth-grade youth and educators marked its 16th year by exceeding 100,000 students for the 2023-2024 school year.
The milestone figure raised to more than 638,000 the number of youth involved since the program’s beginnings.
ACE’s origins date to 2006 during a lull in teacher membership and participation in CAP’s external aerospace education program, which included about 600 aerospace education members, aging curriculum products, and only three staff members.
That led to an effort to bring the AE program back to its place of interest and relevance to America’s teachers. The first step was to create a new program with fresh curricula inviting to both current and potential educator members.
A team of educators went to work developing such a program, which would span the elementary grades and become a feeder program to CAP’s cadet corps.
Beginning in the fall of 2007, a grade-specific program for kindergarten through sixth grade was launched as an early age initiative to introduce children to aerospace topics and careers as well as to opportunities within CAP.
With that, the Junior Cadet program was born. It lifted off in Boaz, Alabama, where CAP was already integrated with the CAP Cadets at School squadron program for middle and high school students.
The new program brought a full-scale CAP presence to the small, rural town’s school system, encompassing kindergarten-through-12th-grade student involvement.
The program launched with 4,500 students and their teachers in schools from Alabama to Pennsylvania and Florida.
In the fall of 2008, the formal name of Aerospace Connections in Education was implemented to represent the program’s components, which aligned with the CAP cadet program model.
Through the aerospace theme, elementary school schools were exposed to:
Lessons that covered all areas of academics taught by classroom teachers;
Character education taught by the school counselor; and
Physical fitness taught by the physical education teacher.
Grade-level curriculum guides and class sets of manipulative teaching items were provided by U.S. Air Force funds to teachers who were implementing the program.
Interested kindergarten-through-eighth-grade schools and middle schools began using the sixth-grade curriculum for their middle school students, expanding the program’s scope of the program.
The ACE program thus began its 16-year journey into every state and in Department of Defense schools in Europe. Aerospace education membership began rising, as did ACE student interest in the cadet program.
Today, the ACE program is one of the reasons elementary and middle school teachers join CAP. The online curriculum is ready-to-teach and includes background information, hands-on activities, assessment tools, and links to further explore lesson topics in an interactive manner for students.
The class sets of manipulative educational items align with some of the lessons, which makes instruction fun and engaging for the students and the teachers.
In all, 98% of ACE teachers report the program fits well with their academic standards, supports STEM education, is a valuable use of time, and is a positive influence on behavior and learning.
Beyond schools and classrooms, ACE is being taught in home schools, libraries, museums, after-school and summer programs, and youth organizations, such as the Scouts, Boys and Girls Clubs, 4-H programs, and Women in Aviation International chapters. Each year more formal and informal kindergarten-through-eighth-grade educators join CAP and include their students.
In addition, the ACE program reaches and influences under-represented youth, as 78% of involved classrooms are in Title I (at-risk) schools. ACE students include an almost equal number of males and females and a broad range of ethnicities.
The number of participating students has grown each year, approaching 98,000 for 2022-2023 and then surpassing 101,000 for the just-concluded school year.
The program was extended during COVID-19 restrictions to allow CAP squadrons to meet virtually with ACE teachers to help continue ACE lessons and provide an introduction to the cadet program for grades five through eight.
The ACE Plus program continues, with squadrons in all eight CAP regions “adopting” ACE classrooms and going into the schools to teach ACE and other aviation lessons, introduce the students to various aerospace-related STEM careers, and expose the students to new role models — CAP adult and cadet members, as well as guest subject-matter experts.
Many squadrons invite the students to visit cadet squadron meetings, take the teachers on CAP Teacher Orientation Program (TOP) flights, and coordinate field trips to airports to further experience aviation opportunities. _____Sue MercerACE Program ManagerSusan MallettACE Program Creator
