Kentucky School Advocate
December 2015
By Matt McCarty
Staff Writer
It’s not just the students who are learning.
“I have no background (in aerospace). I’m a facilitator only,” said Angela Thornsberry, a science teacher who is teaching Knott County Central High School’s aerospace program. “(The students are) working online. As they’re doing it, I’m doing it with them and that way I can give them help, assistance.”
Aerospace instructors receive training at the Air & Space Academy in Louisville during the summer to be able to implement the courses and labs the Academy gives them. The Academy and other area educators with more knowledge and training in the field are resources during the year for instructors.
Mason County High School teacher Josh Underwood said he’s “just a little above the students” as a first-year aerospace instructor.
“I have a physics background, so a little bit of the physics of the flight of the aviation and aerospace I’ve got, and I’ve got background in the aerospace. I’ve worked with that material before, but the aviation side has been totally new,” the 16-year science teacher said. “They had a teacher workshop for us back in the summer to help us get familiar with the content, and the rest of it’s been kind of on me to stay ahead.
“I would really like at one point to pursue my own pilot’s license so that I have that experience to draw from. It would just make me more informed and be able to better share information with the students if I had that personal experience.”