AEX ?

[esilassy]

Hey guys and gals,

I am the newly appointed aerospace officer for my squadron and am putting them thru the AEX program.  I have done 3 of the required 6 lessons so far.  My question to you is: do the exercises seem to be geared to little kids, or am I just imagining that?  So far, everything has gone smooth, but I was worried I would not be able to hold our older cadets, and seniors attention.  Surprisingly, everyone has had a good time.  What do you think?  Also, what would a good field trip exercise be?

[RiverAux]

Got a link to the lesson plans or whatever so that we can check them out? 

[esilassy]

Sorry, not a link, using the AEX II book provided by HQ.  I guess that would help to show you what I'm talking about.  Sorry 

[jimmydeanno]

The curriculum developers at nhq have quite a challenge when writing lesson plans.  How do you design something that fits both a sixth grader and a senior in twelfth grade.  My understanding is that they aim for the median of about 13.  I would venture to suggest if you are concerned about keeping the older cadets engaged use them to assist, mentor, instruct.

[heliodoc]

Did AEX in previous Wing and doing it in the current Wing

Good field trip ideas??

Trip to ATC tower / Air Route Facility
Trip to a(n) military flight facility USAF, US Army, etc
Trip to the FBO aircraft maintenance shop
Trip to the regional or airline flight planning ops, dispatch, and allied shops
Trip to a corporate / biz aircraft hangar or corporation doing corp flying
Trip to an airline ramp, Fedex ramps

Limits   None!!   What ever you come with aero ed related ....it's up to your imagination!!

[BillB]

Prior to 1964, the AE in the cadet program was contained in a single book about an inch and a half think, Civil Air Patrol Manual, Volume II which also included other material. It followed along a regular military manual format and was written by the Air Force for high school level cadets. Included was first air, drill and ceremonies etc. There was also another manual Volume 1 book 1 which had more material for younger cadets. In 1964, Jack Sorensen came up with what is still basically the cadet program. And the minimum age was lowered for cadet membership. The mauals after 1964 were called comic books by cadets since they were loaded with pictures and little advanced information. The entire cadet program was changed to a lower reading level for the younger cadets. Check on eBay, The Manual Book 1 and 2 show up every so often. I showed the manuals to a couple of Spaatz cadets, and they both agreeed that the material was more in depth than the training they had for the Spaatz. If you can find the Manuals, you will find a gold mine of training ideas in AE.

[NC Hokie]

Also, what would a good field trip exercise be?

I am in the process of setting up a visit to a local R/C flying club.  The cadets will (hopefully) have a spin on their simulators and then be paired up with an experienced member to fly one of their planes.

[DC]

It's true, AEX, and really all of the current cadet training materials are geared toward the younger cadets. There is nothing that says you can't expand on the lessons provided in the book, so what I do is take the basic lesson plan, do some research, and come up with an expanded class, that includes the hands on activity, but also usually some serious discussion about the subject.

[A.Member]

To answer your first question, yes, we've found the AEX activities to be far too simple/elementary for our cadets.  The program is in desperate need of updating.  We have high school age cadets taking physics and other advanced science classes.   They are starving for more info.  The program should challenge them.  It does not.  As a result, we've supplemented it heavily.  A couple years ago we attempted to escalate some suggestions for improving the program.  Our offer seems to have fallen on deaf ears.  Obviously, I'm not a very big fan of the AEX curriculum.   We simply go through the motions for the points and that is not the right reason to participate in a program.

As for your questions related to "field trips", see this post for some ideas:  http://captalk.net/index.php?topic=28.0

[esilassy]

Thanks for all the info! 

[BillB]

For some ideas see if you can find a copy of Civil Air Patrol Manual Vol 1 Book 2  on eBay or if a member has one. It's a 1949 manual, but you can see how easy it would be for a squadron to use and update the AE material. While written for cadets in the 40's it was far advanced in material when compared to the current AE manuals.