From the Classroom to the Cockpit: Aviators Bring STEM to Virginia Beach Students Ahead of Oceana Air Show

Lt. Cmdr. Marty “Grouse” Wilson, Lt. Cmdr. Steven “Shaft” Nicklaus, Lt. Sky “Johann” Danskin, and champion aerobatic pilot Aaron Deliu exchanged flight duties for time in the school hallways, allowing students to get a close look at the people who will soon be flying overhead.

Although the cool jets caught their attention, the visits were about more than airplanes.

The students listened to the aviators speak on on the science of flying, aircraft operations, and how STEM – science, technology, engineering, and math – are involved in almost everything they do in the air. The aviators also described their experiences entering aviation, from the beginning to the education, training, and determination it took to reach the position they hold today.

For the students, it was an opportunity to realize the route to the cockpit doesn't begin with a flight suit; it can start right where they were sitting—in a classroom.

“We get to show off what the F/A18 can do in the sky, but coming into the schools gives us a chance to show students what it takes to get there,” said Lt. Cmdr. Steven Nicklaus, F/A-18 Super Hornet pilot with the Rhino Demonstration Team. “Every pilot started somewhere, and for some of these kids, that spark could start right here in their classroom. If seeing us fly this weekend makes one of them look up and think, ‘I could do that,’ then we’ve done something pretty special.”

The pilots urged the students to stay curious, ask questions, and keep working on what excited them. In turn, the students asked many of their own questions and learned about the requirements for becoming a pilot, what it's like to fly high-performance aircraft, and how the lessons taught in elementary school can later become tools used thousands of feet in the air. Over the weekend, classroom conversations will get much louder.

At the NAS Oceana Air Show, students will be able to see the principles of flight put into practice, with the F/A-18 Super Hornet Tactical Demonstration Team from Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 106, Deliu's championship aerobatic display and performances by the U.S. Navy Flight Demonstration Squadron the Blue Angels.

“Being part of the NAS Oceana Air Show and having the opportunity to work alongside the Navy is awesome,” said Aaron Deliu, championship aerobatic pilot. “But getting into the schools and talking with the kids is really what it is all about. If we can spark that curiosity in even one student and get them excited about aviation, STEM, or chasing something they didn’t think was possible, then that’s what it’s all about.”

The aircraft's aerodynamics and propulsion, as well as the effects of force, gravity, and speed and the math behind accurate maneuvering, will turn what students learn in their STEM lessons into something they can see, hear, and—when the jets roar by—perhaps feel.

The school trips are part of NAS Oceana's ongoing initiative to link naval aviation with the Hampton Roads community and encourage students to consider education and careers in STEM. Maybe the most important lesson wasn't some equation or an explanation of how an aircraft remains in the sky.

Wilson, Nicklaus, Danskin and Deliu demonstrated to the students that there is no single perfect way of becoming an aviator since each of them had followed a different route to reaching the cockpit, it being education, perseverance and a willingness to keep on learning that had enabled them to get there.

More than 8,000 students across Virginia Beach elementary schools got a front-row seat to these stories. This weekend, they'll get a front-row seat to what all that work looks like in the sky.

From September 18 to 20, the NAS Oceana Air Show will bring together military and civilian aviation to highlight the precision, teamwork, and technical skill involved in some of aviation's most demanding performances.

The jets will make students look up to the skies, but the aim is to show them how far what they are learning today can take them. (U.S. Navy story by Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class Julianna Lynch)

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