Credit to Abby Dunbar

Maddoc Bray testing a flight simulator in AeroSpace Engineering

Francis Howell North offers a wide variety of classes that fit topics every student would want to learn, but some of these classes are overlooked and some students may not even know they exist.

The PLTW Aerospace Engineering course has been offered at North for 3 years. It provides an interactive approach to the field that can encourage students to learn about a field they may have never considered going into.

“That’s why there is so much attraction for this type of course,” engineering teacher Mike Green said. “It deals with, here’s what an actual airplane is, here’s the way the engine works, here’s how the navigation works. You have to have a vacuum, you have to pressure differential, venturi tubes, being able to figure out air speed, so a lot of that stuff. So it’s just very hands-on.”

Although the class is mostly online, students also get the chance to do labs involving 3D printing wings, building robots, and programming a rover to be autonomously controlled by a computer.

“So the challenge is maybe keeping them on that little task,” Green said. “You know that one little thing that you’re doing, instead of having them go run in different directions, because it’s kind of exciting, there’s different ways to look at things. But in all reality, people want to do it.”

Currently, twelve students have taken on the challenge of completing Aerospace engineering, but that is half the size of Dr. Ryan Curtis’ Music Appreciation through Guitar course.

“To get more students involved in the arts through music, through guitar [which] is a means of easier entrance into music and learning music, versus a traditional band instrument,” Curtis said.

The course is a beginner music class that focuses on teaching the basic concepts of music. Though learning from a textbook is common in many music appreciation classes, Dr. Curtis’ class uses the instrument of guitar to guide students through modern music material.

“It’s more pop-folk music, like Let it Be from the Beatles, you know, those kinds and then, like, maybe some Bob Dylan stuff,” Curtis said.

Both classes only have one hour dedicated to their teaching, but they are both very important classes. They introduce kids to new hobbies or topics that could push a student onto a career path they never thought they could be on.

“You get to a certain point in your career or in your studies, that it doesn’t become a job anymore. It’s fun, it’s play, and that’s a lot of it is you get to play, you get to play every day, and you learn,” Green said.