Ralston students to take flight on Super T field trip

By Anna Smith
Southern Alberta Newspapers
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter

Ralston School’s Grade 5 students will be taking flight this week as part of their aerodynamics unit, with a field trip to Super T Aviation.

Teacher Lisa Dixon, who organized the school trip, said she feels fortunate for recent changes to the curriculum, which allows her students to be learning about aerodynamics and, as such, have a connection to such a unique opportunity.

“We’re doing it as a collaboration. I guess I would call it like a mini project with the Eagle Butte Flight Academy students,” said Dixon. “I thought, why not capitalize on what we have in the division? Because we have an incredible flight program within the division. And I just wanted to pique interest in other learning, and opportunities for my students and their future with programs that we offer.”

Students will be leaving Ralston School on March 28 to do classroom theory with the flight academy students, before splitting into two alternating groups which will both do further airfoil collaboration with the academy students, while the other will hop in a plane to fly over the city.

It’s a wonderful chance to experience everything they’re learning in action, said Dixon, as well as allow their older peers to put their own knowledge to the test by helping to teach.

“I think that’s what we kind of do as teachers,” said Dixon. “We work towards applying learning for a deeper understanding. And this experiential field trip offers that so they can take their learning, and look at it from a deeper perspective, and then tie in those co-curricular concepts while actually participating in doing what we’ve talked about.”

Since it was approved by the board, Dixon has been hard at work connecting with the Flight Academy, Super T Aviation and of course, organizing busing for the students to and from Ralston School.

It is her hope that experiences like this may encourage some of her students to pursue flight as a career when they are older, or perhaps even register for the flight academy in their high school years.

“It’s going to be very fun. They are very excited. I really like that it is a learning experience. And not just, you know, a field trip for the sake of a field trip,” said Dixon.

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