MAXWELL AFB, Ala. — Civil Air Patrol is retooling its 38-year-old National Congress on Aviation and Space Education and has rescheduled the next Congress for October 2006.
Each year the National Congress attracts educators and luminaries from the aerospace and aviation communities, as well as industry, government and military leaders. An important part of the conference is the announcement of each year’s Frank G. Brewer Trophy winner and inductees to the Crown Circle for Aerospace Education Leadership. CAP and the U.S. Air Force jointly host each year’s National Congress.
According to Judy Rice, CAP National Headquarters deputy director of aerospace education, the conference is changing to better respond to President George Bush’s new emphasis on space exploration as well as the current demands for measurable results in education.
“We’re seeing increased interest in aerospace education,” Rice said, “but the nature of that interest is different from what we saw during the Space Race era in the 1950s and 1960s. Our world is more sophisticated technologically, as are our students, and the National Congress is going to focus more on emerging technologies. We want to familiarize educators not only with the technologies themselves, but also with related career and vocational opportunities for their students.”
At the same time, Rice said, educators are looking for ways to better measure student performance in response to such recent federal mandates as the No Child Left Behind Act.
“Teachers can use aerospace activities to teach a variety of concepts,” Rice said, “but they need tools to measure their results. Moving the next conference from April 2005 to October 2006 will give us time to incorporate more measurement tools into the information and training we’ll be providing.”
For most of its 38-year history, the National Congress has been held during March or April. Rice said CAP is moving the conference to October because educators must now devote so much time to testing during the final months of each school year.
The 2006 conference will be held in Washington, D.C. Rice said work is already underway to evaluate every aspect of the event to be sure its offerings are aligned with current trends in the aerospace industry and education. “We’re fortunate to have industry and education partners who understand the importance of aerospace education,” Rice said.
“Their input and support will be critical to the continued success of the National Congress.”
“CAP as an organization is more than 60 years old,” said Al Allenback, CAP executive director. “Throughout the years, our services have continuously evolved to meet the needs of a changing nation. This new direction for the National Congress is just one more example of CAP’s flexibility and responsiveness. We’re invested in America’s future.”
The National Congress is only part of CAP’s ongoing work to support aviation and aerospace education. CAP produces and provides classroom materials and lesson plans to public and private schools and homeschoolers throughout the nation, and requires aerospace instruction for all its cadet members.
CAP, the civilian auxiliary of the U.S. Air Force, is a nonprofit organization with almost 62,000 members nationwide. CAP performs 95% of continental U.S. inland search and rescue missions as tasked by the Air Force Rescue Coordination Center. Its volunteers also perform homeland security, disaster relief and counterdrug missions at the request of federal, state and local agencies. The members take a leading role in aerospace education and serve as mentors to the almost 27,000 young people currently participating in CAP cadet programs. CAP has been performing missions for America for more than 60 years.
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