Aviation for Women is the flagship member publication of Women in Aviation International. Articles feature women who have made aviation history, professional development ideas, and current-topic articles.
Issue link: https://afwdigital.epubxp.com/i/813603
16 Aviation forWomen M A Y / J U N E 2 0 1 7 I f you have ever been to Australia, you would realize how huge our country is! We span the width of the United States, across the breadth of the continent, and from Canada into Mexico, from top to bot- tom. When you look at the map of Australia (below), you will see that all of the capital cities are located on the coastal areas, locations outside of this are all classed as regional or remote. L AUNCHING A STEM AIRBORNE OUTREACH PROGRAM A U S T R A L I A I N T E R N A T I O N A L F O C U S According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 66 percent of the population lives in the capital cities, while 34 percent of the population resides in regional or remote locations. Owing to this huge expanse, a lot of schools in the outback locations and regional areas do not get access to educational content that would include STEM subjects. This means that these children are disadvantaged sim- ply because of where they live. Also, because of the regional or remote loca- tions, filling positions for teachers in these areas is very challenging for the education department. It is a struggle to get qualified teachers to relocate to these remote locations, plus with STEM sub- jects, an even more specialized field, it makes it even more challenging to fill teaching positions. Our goal is to take education to the students by way of our STEM Airborne Outreach initiative. The brainchild of this program is our wonderful Dr. Zara Dennis (Dr. Z as she is more fondly known by her students), who is a private pilot and flies herself to remote areas delivering the STEM education program to the students. Combining her expertise as a physics teacher and her passion for aviation, Dr. Z has designed a 12-month STEM program with a strong aviation foundation to educate students with the hope to inspire and engage these students to consider a pathway into various aviation fields. In the future, our goal is to hold STEM boot camps for stu- dents to continue feeding their young minds. At the same time, we plan to hold STEM trainer programs so that teachers in these remote areas can continue teaching the classes that Dr. Z has developed. We encourage schools to access our various online re- sources on our website to help deliver STEM education. Our dedicated page is waiaustralia.org/educational-resources-2/. WAI Australian Chapter Avalon Air Show 2017 Our WAI Australian Chapter attended the weeklong Avalon Air Show from February 28-March 5 in the beautiful seaside city of Geelong, Victoria. Throughout the air show, volunteers from the chapter manned the booth during the trade and pub- lic days, providing information to very eager individuals on membership and chapter initiatives, such as the STEM Air- borne Education Outreach program and mentoring programs.